CHRISTIAN    THOUGHT 
TO  THE  REFORMATION 


BY 

HERBERT  B.  WORKMAN,  M.A.,  D.Litt. 

PRINCIPAL  OF   the'  WESTMINSTER   TRAINING   COLLEGE 

AUTHOR  OF 
'persecution   in   THE   EARLY   CHURCH*;   '  THE  DAWN 

or  THE  reformation';  *the  letters 

OF  JOHN   HUS,'   ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1911 


6f]  ^  1 

lAJlsL 


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AD  MAJOREM   DEI   QLORIAM 

ET 

IN   MEMORIAM 

A.  M.  W. 

QUAE 

IN   SUA  QENERATIONE  CUM   ADMIN  ISTRASSET 

VOLUNTATE    DEI 

DORMIVIT   18    FEB.    1911 


224008 


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GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 
TO  THE  SERIES 

Man  has  no  deeper  or  wider  interest  than  theology ; 
none  deeper,  for  however  much  he  may  change,  he 
never  loses  his  love  of  the  many  questions  it  covers ; 
and  none  wider,  for  under  whatever  law  he  may  live 
he  never  escapes  from  its  spacious  shade ;  nor  does 
he  ever  find  that  it  speaks  to  him  in  vain  or  uses  a 
voice  that  fails  to  reach  him.  Once  the  present 
writer  was  talking  with  a  friend  who  has  equal  fame 
as  a  statesman  and  a  man  of  letters,  and  he  said, 
"Every  day  I  live.  Politics,  which  are  afiairs  of 
Man  and  Time,  interest  me  less,  while  Theology, 
which  is  an  affair  of  God  and  Eternity,  interests  me 
more."  As  with  him,  so  with  many,  though  the  many 
feel  that  their  interest  is  in  theology  and  not  in  dogma. 
Dogma,  they  know,  is  but  a  series  of  resolutions 
framed  by  a  council  or  parliament,  which  they  do 
not  respect  any  the  more  because  the  parliament  was 
composed  of  ecclesiastically -minded  persons ;  while  the 
theology  which  so  interests  them  is  a  discourse  touching 
God,  though  the  Being  so  named  is  the  God  man  con- 
ceived as  not  only  related  to  himself  and  his  world  but 
also  as  rising  ever  higher  with  the  notions  of  the  self  and 
the  world.  Wise  books,  not  in  dogma  but  in  theology, 
may  therefore  be  described  as  the  supreme  need  of  our 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 

day,  for  only  such  can  save  us  from  much  fanaticism 
and  secure  us  in  the  full  possession  of  a  sober  and 
sane  reason. 

Theology  is  less  a  single  science  than  an  ency- 
clopaedia of  sciences ;  indeed  all  the  sciences  which 
have  to  do  with  man  have  a  better  right  to  be  called 
theological  than  anthropological,  though  the  man  it 
studies  is  not  simply  an  individual  but  a  race.  Its 
way  of  viewing  man  is  indeed  characteristic;  from 
this  have  come  some  of  its  brighter  ideals  and  some  of 
its  darkest  dreams.  The  ideals  are  all  either  ethical 
or  social,  and  would  make  of  earth  a  heaven,  creating 
fraternity  amongst  men  and  forming  all  states  into  a 
goodly  sisterhood  ;  the  dreams  may  be  represented  by 
doctrines  which  concern  sin  on  the  one  side  and  the 
will  of  God  on  the  other.  But  even  this  will  cannot 
make  sin  luminous,  for  were  it  made  radiant  with 
grace,  it  would  cease  to  be  sin. 

These  books  then, — which  have  all  to  be  written  by 
men  who  have  lived  in  the  full  blaze  of  modern  light, 
— though  without  having  either  their  eyes  burned 
out  or  their  souls  scorched  into  insensibility, — are  in- 
tended to  present  God  in  relation  to  Man  and  Man 
in  relation  to  God.  It  is  intended  that  they  begin,  not 
in  date  of  publication,  but  in  order  of  thought,  with  a 
Theological  Encyclopaedia  which  shall  show  the  circle 
of  sciences  co-ordinated  under  the  term  Theology, 
though  all  will  be  viewed  as  related  to  its  central  or 
main  idea.  This  relation  of  God  to  human  know- 
ledge will  then  be  looked  at  through  mind  as  a  com- 
munion of  Deity  with  humanity,  or  God  in  fellowship 
with  concrete  man.    On  this  basis  the  idea  of  Kevela- 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION 

tion  will  be  dealt  with.  Then,  so  far  as  history  and 
philology  are  concerned,  the  two  Sacred  Books,  which 
are  here  most  significant,  will  be  viewed  as  the  scholar, 
who  is  also  a  divine,  views  them;  in  other  words, 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  regarded  as  human 
documents,  will  be  criticised  as  a  literature  which 
expresses  relations  to  both  the  present  and  the  future  ; 
that  is,  to  the  men  and  races  who  made  the  books, 
as  well  as  to  the  races  and  men  the  books  made. 
The  Bible  will  thus  be  studied  in  the  Semitic  family 
which  gave  it  being,  and  also  in  the  Indo-European 
families  which  gave  to  it  the  quality  of  the  life  to 
which  they  have  attained.  But  Theology  has  to  do 
with  more  than  sacred  literature;  it  has  also  to  do 
with  the  thoughts  and  life  its  history  occasioned. 
Therefore  the  Church  has  to  be  studied  and  presented 
as  an  institution  which  God  founded  and  man  ad- 
ministers. But  it  is  possible  to  know  this  Church 
only  through  the  thoughts  it  thinks,  the  doctrines 
it  holds,  the  characters  and  the  persons  it  forms,  the 
people  who  are  its  saints  and  embody  its  ideals  of 
sanctity,  the  acts  it  does,  which  are  its  sacraments,  and 
the  laws  it  follows  and  enforces  which  are  its  polity, 
and  the  young  it  educates  and  the  nations  it  directs 
and  controls.  These  are  the  points  to  be  presented  in 
the  volumes  which  follow,  which  are  all  to  be  occupied 
with  theology  or  the  knowledge  of  God  and  His 
ways. 

A.  M.  F. 
•«0" 


PREFACE 

The  limits  of  the  present  volume  have  been  fixed  in 
accordance  with  the  general  plan  of  the  series.  The 
writer  therefore  is  not  responsible  for  the  effort  to  com- 
press so  vast  a  field  into  so  small  a  compass.  The  diffi- 
culties of  the  task  have  proved  almost  insuperable.  On 
the  one  side  was  the  danger  of  so  emphasising  detail  as 
to  make  the  book  a  pocket  dictionary  of  names  and 
opinions ;  on  the  other  hand,  generalisation  without 
considerable  foundation  of  fact  is  valueless  when  not 
dangerous.  The  writer  has  sought  the  mean — with  what 
success  it  must  be  for  his  critics  to  judge.  Passing  by 
much  that  is  of  the  highest  importance,  he  has  attempted 
to  point  out  the  main  movements  of  Christian  Thought 
from  the  close  of  the  ApostoHc  Age  to  the  dawn  of  the 
Reformation.  For  the  detailed  contents  of  such  thought 
search  must  be  made  in  the  many  familiar  handbooks  of 
theology  or  philosophy  ;  here  the  writer's  object  has  been 
to  draw  attention  to  the  changes  and  developments  due 
to  the  action  and  reaction  upon  theology,  not  only  of  the 
current  philosophy  and  science,  but  also  to  some  extent 
of  the  general  environment,  the  influence  of  which  is 
oftentimes  unduly  neglected. 

The  writer  believes  firmly  in  the  evolutionary  stand- 


viii    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

point  as  alone  explanatory  of  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  the  expression  of  the  will  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  admits,  therefore,  the  principle  of  development  as  not 
only  an  historic  fact,  but  as  part  of  the  work  of  God. 
True  Christianity  is  not  to  be  found  by  going  back  to 
some  ill-defined  period  of  antiquity,  the  beliefs  and 
practices  of  which  it  is  now  almost  impossible  to  recon- 
struct, but  by  the  incorporation  into  itself  of  the  ever- 
enlarging  knowledge,  the  ever-expanding  horizons  of  life. 
It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  this  can  be  done.  She 
shows  her  universality  and  her  eternal  truth  by  her 
ability  to  interpret  in  terms  of  her  faith  the  thought  and 
knowledge  not  only  of  the  first,  but  of  the  twelfth  and 
of  the  twentieth  centuries ;  only  when  the  Church  of  any 
generation  is  tempted  to  regard  her  interpretation  of  her 
Lord  as  final  and  complete  does  that  Church  demonstrate 
her  limitations  of  outlook,  her  weakness  of  faith.  No 
generation,  not  even  in  the  first  century,  is  sufficiently 
big  to  be  able  to  take  in  all  the  facets  of  the  one  Divine 
Life.  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for 
ever,  is  for  us,  as  for  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  not  the  claim  for  a  stereotyped  creed  unable  to 
assimilate  or  advance,  but  the  proclamation  that  in  the 
conception  of  Christ  as  the  eternal  Logos,  and  in  the  ever- 
repeated  return  to  the  historic  Jesus,  will  be  found  the 
one  solution  by  every  generation  of  the  problems  that 
confront,  of  the  troubles  that  harass. 

Such  a  view  of  development  or  evolution  may  well  be 
called  biological.  It  is  evolution  exhibited  in  a  Hving 
organism,  affected  by  and  sensitive  to  the  changes  in  the 


PREFACE  ix 

environment  in  which  its  Hfe  is  placed.  As  such  it  is  to 
be  distinguished  from  logical  development  in  which  the 
premises  and  deductive  processes  are  exclusively  studied. 
Unfortunately  in  theology  the  logical  methods  have  too 
often  been  allowed  to  monopolise  attention,  with  the 
result  that  theology  has  been  divorced  from  history  and 
actual  life.  Logical  development  is  a  simple  process; 
the  tracing  of  biological  evolution  needs  the  accurate 
measurement  of  many  complex  factors;  above  all,  the 
perpetual  insistence  on  life  itself  as  the  key  to  the  whole. 

Limits  of  space  have  driven  the  writer,  much  against 
his  will  and  usual  practice,  to  exclude  all  references  to 
the  original  sources.  Nor  has  it  been  possible,  in  a  work 
covering  so  vast  a  period  in  so  small  a  compass,  to 
acknowledge  the  full  measure  of  indebtedness,  or  to 
indicate  the  authority  or  reasons  upon  which  certain 
opinions  have  been  formed.  To  the  same  cause  must 
be  attributed  a  necessary,  though  unwelcome,  positiveness 
of  expression  as  regards  some  matters  that  in  a  larger 
work  would  demand  discussion  and  justification.  The 
bibUography  at  the  close,  which  it  would  have  been  easy 
to  make  as  large  as  the  text  itself,  has  been  constructed 
with  a  view  to  the  requirements  of  the  busy  pastor  or 
general  reader. 

Manuals  of  theology  and  philosophy  abound.  Surveys 
of  the  development  of  Christian  Thought — apart  from  the 
great  works  of  Harnack,  Loofs,  and  Seeberg — are  some- 
what rare.  The  best  known,  probably,  is  Dr.  Allen's 
excellent  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,  the  scale  of 
which,  however,   is  even  more  restricted   than   in   the 

h 


X      CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REF0RMATI6n 

present  work.  A  niche,  therefore,  may  be  fouijtl  for  the 
following  attempt,  in  spite  of  many  imperfections  of 
knowledge  and  execution  of  which  no  critic  can  be  more 
conscious  than  the  author  himself. 

It  may  be  well  to  point  out  that  quotations  from 
sources  reasonably  contemporary  with  the  writer  or  event 
in  question  are  enclosed  within  *....';  quotations  from 
modern  writers  in  the  usual  ** .  .  .  . ". 

Westminster, 

March  1911. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

MOM 
THE  JEWISH  FACTORS,  .  .  .  ,  ,  ,  ,  1-19 

(For  Argument  see  page  1.) 

CHAPTER  II 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF   HELLAS, 20-60 

(For  Argument  see  page  20.) 

CHAPTER  III 

TAB  PERSON   OF  CHRPST, ,  61-89 

(For  Argument  see  page  61. ) 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE   GENIUS   OF   ROME, 90-109 

(For  Argument  see  page  90.) 

CHAPTER  V 

ST.    AUGUSTINE, 110-127 

(For  Argument  see  page  110.) 

zi 


xii     CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 
CHAPTER  VI 


PAGKS 


THE   DARK   AGES, 128-159 

(For  Argument  see  page  128.) 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE      RENAISSANCE     OF     THE     ELEVENTH     AND     TWELFTH 

CENTURIES, 160-187 

(For  Argument  see  page  160.) 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  MEDIEVAL   MYSTICS, 188-211 

(For  Argument  see  page  188.) 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SCHOOLMEN, 212-243 

(For  Argument  see  page  212.) 

BIBLIOORAFHT, 245-252 

IKDEX, 253-256 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  JEWISH   FACTORS 
Argumeiit 

§  I.  The  composite  character  of  Christianity — Later  Jewish 
influence  but  slight — St.  James  and  the  Nazarenes — 
Ebionism — Our  limited  knowledge  of  sub-apostolic 
times pp.       2-5 

§  II.  The  hostility  to  Judaism — Epistle  of  Barnabas— Maucion 
— The  Old  Testament — Eesults  of  the  reaction  against 
Marcion — The  allegorical  method  of  interpretation 
— Its  origin  and  influence — After  history  of  the 
method pp.     5-11 

§  III.  Apocalyptic  literature  in  early  Christianity — Eschato- 
logical  concepts — The '  prophets '  of  the  Early  Church 
— The  services  of  Chiliasm — Antagonism  to  Rome — 
Angelology  and  demons — Growth  of  superstition  pp.   11-17 

§  IV.  The  doctrine  of  the  Logos — Philo — Christian  develop- 
ment of  the  Logos    •        •        •        •        •        I    pp.   17-19 


2      CHRI^TJAK;  aHOUOaT  ?Q;,THE  reformation    [ch. 


OvEB  the  Cross  of  the  Saviour  the  inscription  was  written 
in  three  languages,  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin  ;  a  threefold 
appeal  to  the  great  races,  which  by  their  organisation 
and  thought  influenced  and  moulded  the  infant  Church. 
Christ  was  bom  amid  the  clash  of  East  and  West ;  his- 
torical Christianity  is  the  product  of  many  movements 
with  intense  differences,  local  and  racial.  From  the  Jew, 
the  Greek,  and  the  Roman  the  new  faith  received  elements, 
differing  according  to  the  genius  of  the  different  races,  yet 
all  of  value  in  building  up  the  City  of  God.  For  the  Jew, 
the  Greek,  and  the  Roman  on  entering  the  Church  did  not 
lose  their  racial  idiosyncrasies  or  abandon  their  distinctive 
tempers  and  modes  of  thought.  The  Jew  came  to  the 
New  Testament  through  the  Old ;  the  Greek,  even  if  he 
entered  the  Church  through  the  synagogue,  yet  brought 
with  him  his  philosophy  ;  while  the  Roman  construed  all 
in  terms  of  his  polity. 

For  our  present  purpose  the  direct  contribution  of  the 
Jew  is  relatively  slight,  even  if  we  understand  by  the  Jew 
the  larger  Eastern  world  of  which  he  formed,  especially 
in  Alexandria,  the  mediator  and  interpreter  to  the  West. 
The  Apostles,  it  is  true,  were  Jews.  The  monotheism  of 
Christianity  was  Jewish  and  not  Greek  ;  its  doctrine  of 
the  Messiah  wholly  Jewish.  The  superstructure  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine  was  built  upon  Jewish  foundations,  and  can 
only  be  construed  through  the  Judaism  of  Palestine  or  of 
the  Dispersion.  The  root  ideas  of  the  Gospel  were  planted 
deep  in  Old  Testament  soil.  For  the  Gentile  Christian  as 
for  the  Jew  the  older  Scriptures  were  canonical,  authentic, 


t]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  8 

and  inspired ;  at  one  time,  in  fact,  his  only  Bible.  But 
with  the  accomplishment  of  this  their  historic  purpose,  the 
further  direct  influence  of  the  Jew  upon  Christian  thought 
after  the  Apostolic  Age  became  comparatively  insignificant. 
The  new  conceptions  of  religion  could  receive  little  but 
hostility  from  Jewish  conservatism.  Even  in  Je\^^ij3h 
Christian  circles  (the  so-called  Nazarenes)  little  was  added 
with  growing  years  to  their  first  crude  ideas  of  the  Messiah. 
What  is  absent  is  more  noteworthy  than  what  is  present. 
Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  poverty  of  the 
Christology  of  such  a  representative  Jewish  writer  as  St. 
James.  Sublime  as  are  his  ethics,  his  Christian  teaching, 
as  distinct  from  what  Micah  would  have  written,  is  but 
slight.  In  the  Jewish  writers  who  came  after  St.  James, 
with  their  stunted  Christianity,  e.g.  the  Christian  inter- 
polations in  the  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  we  miss 
altogether  the  great  Pauline  or  Johannine  conceptions.  We 
find  instead  the  anticipation  of  the  teaching  of  Arius,  that 
Christ  is  no  more  than  a  creature  of  God.  The  difl&culty 
which  the  Jewish  mind  seems  always  to  have  discerned 
in  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Messiah  found  its  expression 
in  the  docetism  of  Cerinthus  (a.d.  90),  who  taught  that  the 
Christ  who  descended  upon  Jesus  at  His  baptism  forsook 
Him  before  His  passion.  But  the  Jewish  consciousness, 
even  when  nominally  Christian,  was  generally  unable  to 
interpret  Christ. 

Another  and  more  rigid  section  of  the  Jewish  Cliristians, 
known  as  Ebionites,  has  left  us  an  extensive  but  obscure 
literature.  The  chief  of  these,  known  as  the  pseudo- 
Clementine  Recognitions  and  Homilies  (both  probably  in- 
dependent abridgments  of  a  lost  work  called  the  Circuits 
of  St.  Peter)  display  at  times  a  remarkable  animosity  to 
St.  Paul,  and  absolutely  ignore  any  idea  of  Atonement.* 
Christ,  however,  as  the  eternal  interpreter  of  the  Law  by 

1  It  is  difficult  to  understand  Harnack's  {II. D.  i.  311  ff.)  contention  that  th« 
Clementine  literature  is  '  Catholic,'  or  at  most  syncretistic  (i.  314  n.). 


4      CHKISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

His  successive  incarnations  in  perfect  men,  culminating 
in  His  incarnation  in  Jesus,  delivers  men  from  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  earth-spirit.  Whether  the  Jewish  Christians 
would  ever  have  advanced  beyond  these  crude  and  un- 
disciplined notions  it  is  now  impossible  to  say.  For  the 
Jewish  Christian  Church,  the  earliest  form  of  Christianity, 
almost  ceased  to  exist  with  the  close  of  the  second  century. 
Jewish  Christians  lingered  on,  it  is  true,  here  and  there, 
especially  in  Pella  and  Kochaba,  and  still  survive,  it  would 
appear,  in  Mesopotamia  in  a  hopelessly  corrupt  condition.^ 
Their  history,  for  the  most  part  a  blank,  is  that  of  a  rudi- 
mentary organ  in  the  Church,  a  perpetual  warning  of  the 
atrophy  which  awaits  blindness  to  the  signs  of  a  new 
age. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  comparatively  slight  influence,  as 
it  seems  to  us,  of  the  Jew  upon  Christian  thought  after 
the  ApostoUc  Age.  Probably  if  we  knew  more  we  should 
see  that  this  influence  was  greater  than  we  think.  Later 
Judaism,  the  Judaism  of  the  Apocalypses  and  of  Alexan- 
dria, and  early  Christianity,  especially  in  its  non- Pauline 
types,  were  so  closely  connected  and  were  differentiated 
so  gradually  that  they  must  have  exercised  considerable 
influence  one  upon  the  other.  Unfortunately  the  century 
which  followed  the  death  of  St.  Paul  is  a  silent  century  that 
has  left  us  but  '*  fragments  of  fragments  "  of  its  history. 
Annalists  had  slight  place  in  a  community  that  lived  in 
expectation  of  the  sudden  coming  of  the  Lord.  Of  such 
literature  as  existed  we  have  now  only  a  few  torn  leaves. 
Only  here  and  there  is  the  curtain  lifted  upon  those  memor- 
able days.  Only  very  imperfectly  do  we  yet  understand 
the  process  by  which  a  young,  proscribed  creed,  trans- 
planted from  the  land  of  its  birth  to  the  abodes  of  men 
»of  alien  thought  and  of  alien  institutions,  in  the  teeth  of 
relentless  edicts,  without  as  yet  settled  doctrines,  a  settled 
canon — apart  from  the  Old  Testament — or  settled  organi- 

1  Enryc.  Brit.^,  s.v.  Mtndaeans. 


L]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  6 

sfiktion,  became  a  homogeneous  force  which  the  Roman 
Empire  could  not  overthrow,  and  with  which  the  culture 
of  the  world  was  bound  to  come  to  terms.  But  in  the 
process  Christianity  and  Judaism  drifted  fatally  apart ; 
not  unnaturally  when  we  remember  that  Pauline  doctrine 
really  negatives  all  that  is  most  characteristic  in  Mosaism. 


In  three  directions  the  Jew  influenced,  though  chiefly 
in  a  negative  way,  the  development  of  Christian  thought, 
especially  in  the  second  century.  An  intense  hostility  to 
everything  Jewish,  combined  with  the  acceptance  of  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  as  canonical  and  inspired,  is  one  of  the 
marks  of  much  early  Christian  literature,  most  strongly 
emphasised,  perhaps,  in  orthodox  writings,  in  the  Epistle 
of  Barnabas.  In  this  work,  probably  written  in  the  second 
century,  and  long  regarded  as  of  apostolic  authority,  the 
writer  claims  that  all  Jewish  ceremonies  are  of  the  devil. 
Confronted  with  the  difficulty  what  to  make  in  this  case 
of  the  Old  Testament,  he  and  his  school  boldly  twisted 
it  into  an  allegorical  or  spiritual  narrative.  Others  went 
further,  and  maintained  that  the  Old  Testament  from  cover 
to  cover  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Jews,  who  were  but  *  a 
synagogue  of  Satan.' 

Another  sect  of  extremists,  under  the  lead  of  Marcion 
(c.  150) — an  "  old-world  Count  Tolstoy  "  ^ — pushed  to  an 
extreme  the  doctrines  of  Barnabas,  and  repudiated  both 
Judaism  and  the  Old  Testament,  though  careful  to  acknow- 
ledge its  historicity.  The  drift  of  Marcion's  thought  is 
shown  by  the  title  of  his  chief  work.  Antitheses,  or  '  Con- 
trasts.^ To  such  lengths  did  Marcion  carry  his  hostility 
that  he  makes  Christ  descend  into  hell  and  release  the 
heathen,  even  Sodomites  and  Egyptians,  while  passing 
by  the  great  Jewish  saints.    A  man  of  deep  and  genuine 

I  T.  M.  Lindsay,  Church  and  Ministry,  p.  219. 


6      CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

piety,  he  believed  that  he  had  discovered  the  secret  of 
St.  Paul,  that  the  Gospel  was  essentially  a  revelation  of 
grace,  love,  and  redemption  which  had  nothing  in  common 
with  the  external  restraints  and  legal  conditions  of  the 
Old  Testament.  He  forgot  that  St.  Paul  had  sought  to 
deduce  his  special  doctrines  from  the  Old  Testament  itself. 
In  Marcion  we  find  the  exact  opposite  of  the  Ebionite  and 
pseudo-Clementine  writings  of  the  Jewish  Christian  Church. 
These  last  had  discerned  in  Christianity  little  else  than  a 
continuation  of  Judaism,  a  Mosaism  purified  and  enlarged. 
Marcion  refused  to  allow  any  association  or  link  whatever. 
He  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  progressive  manifestation 
and  disciplinary  delays.  As  usual,  the  extremes  met. 
The  one  denied  the  possibility  of  development  in  religious 
thought ;  the  other  so  exaggerated  the  new  elements  at  the 
expense  of  the  old  as  to  leave  no  room  for  development  at 
all.  The  Church  was  founded  upon  a  cataclysm,  and  left 
unrelated  to  history. 

From  this  heresy,  organised  by  Marcion  into  a  regular 
system  which  lasted  until  the  sixth  century,  the  Church 
was  saved,  not  so  much  by  the  logic  of  its  leaders — for 
many  of  the  positions  into  which  they  were  driven  seem 
more  than  questionable — as  by  its  sense  of  historic  spiritual 
continuity,  that  '  rock  *  upon  which  so  much  that  is  more 
valuable  than  logic  is  founded.  Men  realised  that  it  was 
better  to  throw  a  bridge  between  the  Church  and  the  past 
than,  with  Marcion  of  Pontus,  to  leave  Christianity  with- 
out historic  {i.e.  Jewish)  foundations  and  supports.  The 
Apologists  especially,  in  their  attempt  to  win  the  cultured 
Gentiles,  felt  the  necessity  of  dating  back  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  beginning  of  the  human  race  ;  while  the 
average  Christian  clung  firmly  to  the  Jewish  foundations 
as  the  one  effective  barrier  against  that  complete  Helleni- 
sation  of  Christianity  the  results  of  which  he  fancied  he 
had  already  seen  in  Gnosticism.  Even  Tertullian,  much 
as  he  detested  Judaism,  dreaded  even  more  '  the  Pontic 


I.J  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  7 

mouse  who  nibbled  away  the  Gospels,'  with  whom  *  all 
things  happened  on  the  sudden.' 

One  result  of  this  reaction  against  Marcion  was  to  fasten 
upon  the  Church  a  heritage  of  Old  Testament  legalism, 
which  in  many  directions  cramped  the  larger  spirit  of  the 
Church.  The  new  wine,  in  spite  of  the  warning  of  Jesus, 
was  poured  into  old  bottles.  Another  result  was  the 
triumph  of  the  allegorical  method.  The  Church  hence- 
forth frankly  accepted  the  Old  Testament,  but  the  diffi- 
culty of  its  interpretation  still  remained  ;  nor  was  this 
lessened  by  the  rigid  view  of  inspiration  which  the  early 
Christians  inherited  from  Judaism.  There  was  much  in 
the  Old  Testament  that  was  unintelligible  to  Greek  con- 
verts, much  that  seemed  contradictory  to  their  new  faith, 
some  things  that  jarred  upon  their  moral  consciousness. 
The  modern  explanation  by  historical  and  ethical  develop- 
ment was  unknown  ;  yet  some  solution  must  be  discovered. 
Refuge  from  these  difficulties  was  found  in'  the  adoption 
of  allegory  as  the  true  key  for  the  unlocking  of  the  Bible 
treasures,  a  method  nowhere  more  firmly  carried  out  than 
by  the  unknown  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

For  the  origin  of  the  allegorical  method  many  different 
sources  may  be  claimed  with  equal  truth.  In  reality  the 
method  completely  met  diverse  different  needs  of  the  age. 
We  have  seen  its  adoption  by  the  writer  of  Barnabas 
because  of  the  intense  hatred  of  sections  of  the  Early 
Church  to  everything  Jewish.  Strange  to  say,  the  method 
was  itself  Jewish,  or  rather  rabbinic  ;  though  Philo,  the 
leader  of  the  Jewish  allegorical  school  of  Alexandria,  speaks 
of  it  as  the  method  of  the  Greek  mysteries.  Philo  was 
right.  For  centuries  the  Greek  philosophers  had  used  the 
method  as  a  means  of  protecting  their  sacred  poems  and 
myths  from  the  critics,  and  the  system  had  been  com- 
pleted by  the  Stoics,  especially  Heraclitus  and  Comutus. 
By  the  writers  of  this  school  the  varying  theories  of  ethics, 
physics,  and  metaphysics  alike  are  made  to  find  their 


8      CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

support  and  proof  in  Homer,  whose  verses  were  the  Bible 
of  the  Greek  race.  By  this  means  also  reconciUation  was 
found  between  the  new  world  of  ideas  and  the  old  Homeric 
world  from  which  men  were  slipping  away.  When,  there- 
fore, in  the  third  century  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
influence  of  Philo  was  aided  by  that  of  Hellenic  culture, 
by  the  need  for  overthrowing  Marcionism,  and  by  the 
fashionable  syncretism,  the  result  was  inevitable.  By 
orthodox  and  unorthodox.  Gnostics  and  Apologists,  the 
simplest  words  and  incidents  both  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  received  most  daring  interpretations.  The 
one  hundred  and  fifty-three  fishes  caught  in  the  Sea  of 
Galilee  were  resolved,  to  give  an  example,  into  the  square 
of  the  Apostles  and  the  square  of  the  Trinity.  The  books  of 
the  prophets  especially  suffered  ;  their  every  sentence  was 
wrested  into  a  prediction  ;  their  moral  *  forthtelling  '  was 
lost  in  the  emphasis  of  '  foreknowledge.'  The  method  be- 
came universal.  In  dealing  with  the  heathen  myths  the 
Apologists  will  have  none  of  it,  though  they  fall  back  upon 
it  for  the  defence  of  Christianity.  Gnostics  fled  to  it  for 
the  advancement  of  their  own  views,  and  turned  the  Nunc 
dimittis  of  Simeon  into  a  thanksgiving  of  the  Demiurge  to  the 
Infinite  Depth.  Even  Celsus  and  Porphyry,  in  spite  of  their 
bitter  attacks  upon  the  Christian  exegesis,  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  their  own  religion  became  allegorists  themselves. 
When  the  work  of  the  Gnostics,  Apologists,  and  Alexan- 
drians had  resulted  in  the  expression  of  Christianity  in  terms 
of  Hellenic  thought,  the  allegorical  method  became  even 
more  supreme.  In  part  this  was  due  to  the  curious  fact 
that  the  Greeks,  who  of  all  others  have  done  most  by  their 
literature  for  the  intellectual  advancement  of  the  race, 
always  looked  on  the  written  word  with  some  suspicion.* 
Writing,  said  Socrates  in  the  Phaedrus,  can  do  no  more 
than  remind  the  reader  of  something  which  he  knows 

1  See  Butcher,  "The  Written  and  the  Spoken  Word,"  in  Some  Aspects  qf 
ths  Greek  Oenitu, 


I.]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  9 

already.  Knowledge  is  not  the  outcome  of  books,  but  of 
illumination  ;  into  the  mystery  of  learning  few  can  pene- 
trate. We  may  note  in  passing,  as  a  matter  of  some 
importance,  that  this  illumination,  or  power  of  allegorical 
interpretation,  was  regarded  as  having  been  handed  down 
from  the  Apostles  through  a  succession  not  of  bishops  but 
of  teachers.^ 

By  many  modem  writers  the  allegorical  method  is  re- 
garded as  the  peculiar  mark  of  mysticism  and  orthodoxy. 
This  is  one  of  the  curious  reversals  of  opinion  of  which 
history  contains  so  many.  In  reality,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
allegorical  method  grew  out  of  a  tendency  to  rationalism ; 
it  was  primarily  an  attempt  to  explain  away  for  Greek 
readers  the  difficulties  of  the  Scriptures  {e.g.  the  story  of 
the  Fall),  by  getting  rid  of  their  literal  or  historical  signifi- 
cance. As  rationalistic  the  method  received  condemnation 
at  the  hands  of  certain  early  writers,  whose  zeal  was 
scarcely  in  proportion  to  their  knowledge. 

In  spite  of  all  its  radical  unsoundness,  when  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  more  scientific  age,  this  much  may  be 
said  for  the  allegorical  method,  that  it  attained  a  true  goal. 
The  allegorist  rightly  felt  that  the  Bible  was  a  treasure 
held  in  trust  for  the  human  race.  The  value  of  the  Bible 
does  not  lie  in  its  historical  or  scientific  detail,  but  in  its 
spiritual,  universal  content;  all  else  is  immaterial,  local, 
and  temporal.  But  spiritual  content  cannot  exist  unless 
there  is  the  capacity  of  eternal  self-adjustment.  That  this 
cannot  be  attained  by  slavish  homage  to  the  letter  was  the 
constant  testimony  of  the  allegorical  method.  Though  the 
road  by  which  allegorism  travelled  was  one  that  we  should 
not  care  to  tread  to-day,  the  conclusion  reached  was  really 
one  with  that  of  modem  criticism.  The  spiritual  was  made 
all  in  all,  and  the  letter,  in  many  cases,  a  veil  that  hid  it ;  to- 
day we  regard  the  letter  not  as  a  veil,  but  as  the  vehicle  of 
the  spiritual,  of  little  value  in  itself  save  in  so  far  as  it  bears 

1  Bigg,  Christian  Plaionists,  i.  57. 


10    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

witness  to  eternal  truth.  The  allegorical  method  in  its 
search  for  the  spiritual  did  not  take  sufi&ciently  wide  sweeps ; 
it  laboured  under  the  delusion  that  every  separate  verse  of 
Scripture,  nay,  every  separate  word,  was  profitable,  instead 
of  discerning  the  spiritual  in  the  sum -total  of  the  messages 
or  the  movement. 

The  after  history  of  this  allegorical  method  may  here  be 
summarised.^  Made  into  a  system  by  Origen,  of  whom  we 
are  expressly  told  that  he  had  studied  the  works  of  the 
Stoic  Comutus,  it  was  the  chief  but  least  valuable  part  of 
his  teaching  which  survived  the  condemnation  of  his  posi- 
tions. Henceforth  it  dominated  the  Church,  though  not 
without  opposition  from  the  school  of  Antioch,  especially 
from  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  (t429).  While  pleading  for 
greater  fidelity  to  the  grammatical,  hteral,  and  historical 
sense,  for  the  allegorical  significance  Theodore  attempted 
to  substitute  the  '  typical,'  ofttimes,  it  is  true,  falling  into 
the  very  *  allegory  '  from  which  escape  was  sought.  By 
means  of  the  Instituta  Regularia  of  Junilius  Africanus 
(c.  550),  the  '  typical '  school  obtained  an  entrance  mto 
the  West,  and  is  not  extinct  in  certain  quarters  even  to- 
day. But,  compared  with  the  allegorists,  the  *  typical' 
school  had  little  influence  ;  partly  because  of  the  critical 
freedom  with  which  Theodore  had  dealt  with  the  doubtful 
books  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  to  a  greater 
degree  because  of  the  association  of  the  school  with  Nestor- 
ianism.  Further  developed  by  Jerome  and  Augustine,  the 
*  allegorical '  method  became  the  one  acknowledged  prin- 
ciple of  exegesis  of  the  Middle  Ages,  reaching  its  most 
interesting  expression  in  Bernard  of  Clairvaux's  Sermons 
on  the  Canticles.  By  most  medieval  writers  Scripture  was 
given  a  fourfold  interpretation,  literal  or  historical,  tropo- 
logical,  allegorical,  and  analogical.  Thomas  Aquinas  care- 
fully distinguished  the  historical  signification  from  *  the 

1  For  allegory,  see  Geffcken  in  Hastingn*  Dictionary  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  Tol.  i. ;  Hatch,  Ivjluence  of  Oreek  Ideas,  chap.  iii. 


1.]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  11 

spiritual  sense  founded  upon  it.'  This  distinction  pre- 
vailed until  long  after  the  Reformation  began  a  more 
critical  exegesis. 

in 

A  second  direction  in  which  we  may  trace  the  impulse 
of  Judaism  was  in  the  influence  of  its  eschatological  or 
apocalyptic  literature.  Christianity  had  its  historical 
origin  at  the  very  centre  of  what  we  may  describe  as  the 
apocalyptic  period  (300  B.C.-200  a.d.).  Among  the  Jews 
apocalypses  of  all  sorts  had  flourished  exceedingly  since 
the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  were  regarded  as 
possessing  almost  canonical  authority.  They  were,  in 
reality,  the  continuation  under  a  grosser  form  of  the  yearn- 
ing for  that  mysterious  new  order  which  Hebrew  prophets 
had  first  dimly  seen,  and  then  changed  into  a  national 
expectation,  and  which  Jesus  had  proclaimed  as  fulfilled 
in  the  '  Kingdom  of  Heaven.'  These  writings  were  naturally 
received  by  the  Christians  as  part  of  their  heritage  from 
Judaism,  and,  where  necessary  (as  in  the  case  of  the  chaotic 
wilderness  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles),  adapted  to  Christian 
needs  by  means  of  Christian  alterations  or  additions. 
Among  the  elements  of  this  apocalyptic  literature  we  may 
discern,  as  in  the  second  part  of  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John, 
an  intense  hatred  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  a  tendency  to 
bury  the  simple  eschatological  teaching  of  Jesus  beneath  a 
mass  of  allegory.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  millenarian 
exaggeration  or  sensuous  imagery,  we  may  recognise  the 
service  done  to  Christian  thought  by  this  apocalyptic 
hterature  in  the  sustained  emphasis  laid  upon  eschato- 
logical hope,  the  '  athanasia '  through  Jesus  Christ.^  In 
times  of  persecution,  as  we  see  from  the  Acts  of  Perpetua, 
the  Acts  of  Marianus  and  James,  and  other  similar  human 
documents,  it  was  to  these  delineations  of  the  blessedness 

»  Didache,  ix.  10. 


12    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

of  the  triumphant  that  the  tortured  turned.^  As  an  in- 
tegral part  of  this  eschatological  hope,  we  find  at  a  very 
early  date  the  identification  of  Jesus  with  the  Son  of  Man 
who  was  to  appear  in  judgment,  though  apocalyptic  Htera- 
ture  never  rose  to  the  great  conception  that  '  the  Father 
hath  given  authority  to  the  Son  to  execute  judgment, 
because  He  is  the  Son  of  Man.'  The  human  sympathy  of 
the  judgment  was  generally  lost  in  the  fiery  details  with 
which  the  apocalypses  abounded,  which  became  part  of 
the  stock  of  Christian  thinking. 

Of  this  current  literature  another  outcome  was  the 
strength  of  chiliastic  conceptions  ;  a  transfiguration  of 
the  ancient  hopes  of  Israel,  begun  by  the  Jews,  taken 
over  by  the  Church,  and  then  enlarged  and  refined  by  being 
linked  on  with  the  Lord.  A  belief  in  the  immediate 
coming  of  Christ  was  common  in  the  Early  Church,  and 
soon  passed  into  the  idea  that  this  would  begin  the  reign 
of  the  Saviour  and  His  saints  for  a  thousand  years  at 
Jerusalem.  The  Church,  in  the  second  century  especially, 
was  largely  influenced  by  parousian  conceptions.  The 
Christian  watchword  was  still,  as  in  apostolic  days,  Maran 
Atha,  "  the  Lord  is  at  hand."  The  wandering  *  prophets  ' 
(an  order  in  the  Church  which  died  out  with  Montanism) 
made  this  theme  in  special,  as  Celsus  complains,  the  basis 
of  their  sermons,  and  gloried — at  least  that  was  the  im- 
pression produced  upon  the  heathen — in  the  retribution 
so  speedily  to  come  upon  the  world.  By  many  writers, 
e.g.  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas, 
as  well  as  by  Papias  and  Justin,  we  find  the  millenarian 
idea  strongly  developed,  while  Tertullian  and  Irenaeus 
give  evidence  of  the  same  behef.  To  these  conceptions, 
the  basis  of  which  was  the  literal  interpretation  of  certain 
passages  in  the  Apocalypse  and  other  similar  writings,  a 
blow  was  given  by  the  introduction  of  the  allegorical 
method  in  Alexandrian  theology.     In  the  third  century, 

1  Workman,  Persecution  in  the  Early  Church,  p.  321  ff. 


1.]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  13 

partly  through  the  influence  of  the  treatise  of  Dionysius 
of  Alexandria,  On  the  Promises,  partly  through  the  more 
friendly  relations  between  the  Church  and  the  Empire, 
partly  through  the  discredit  of  the  prophets  and  the  failure 
of  Montanism,  partly  through  the  greater  influence  of 
Greek  thought,  chiUastic  conceptions  became  generally 
discounted,  especially  in  the  East.  A  century  later  they 
were  regarded  as  heretical. 

But  the  importance  of  these  chiliastic  conceptions, 
especially  in  the  second  century,  must  not  be  forgotten 
because  of  their  later  discredit.  By  these  beliefs  men  were 
supported  through  a  great  crisis  in  the  world's  history. 
In  a  society  rapidly  hastening  to  dissolution  the  Church 
was  enabled  to  hold  fast  to  the  conviction  that  God  was 
leading  all  things  to  an  issue  in  which  righteousness  and 
love  should  be  fully  vindicated.  "  Because  Christianity 
was  thus,"  as  Professor  Burkitt  aptly  puts  it,  "  organised 
for  a  time  of  catastrophe,"  ^  when  the  crash  came  Chris- 
tianity alone  of  the  institutions  of  the  world  survived  the 
catastrophe. 

In  chiliastic  conceptions  we  recognise  also  a  fundamental 
truth  ;  though  in  the  issue  of  events  it  took  a  different 
form  from  men's  first  expectations.  Chiliasm  proclaims 
that  for  the  Christian,  as  for  the  Jew  of  old,  there  is  a 
divine  interpretation  of  human  history.  History  is  not 
limited  to  any  one  '  aeon.'  The  optimism  of  this  view, 
both  for  the  individual  and  for  society,  though  concealed 
by  much  allegorical  verbiage,  is  apparent  when  contrasted 
with  the  pessimism  of  the  great  Stoic  thinker,  Marcus 
AureHus.  Chiliasm,  whatever  its  faults,  has  no  despair 
of  the  spiritual  possibilities  of  human  nature.  With  its 
proclamation  of  *  aeons  of  aeons,'  it  refuses  to  narrow  its 
vision  by  circles  premature.  With  Marcus  Aurelius  re- 
nimciation  becomes  a  hopeless  concentration  upon  present 
duty,  for  whose  sake  all  else  must  be  put  aside.    It  is 

1  Prof.  Burkitt,  in  Cambridge  Biblical  Essays^  p.  207. 


U    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

magnificent,  in  some  respects  the  most  magnificent  flight 
of  the  unaided  human  soul.  None  the  less,  it  is  not  so  much 
spiritual  vision  as  despair.  The  City  of  God,  or  realised 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  that  organised  ideal  in  which  lay 
the  strongest  appeal  of  the  new  religion,  by  its  very  nature 
utterly  subversive  of  the  established  order  as  it  then 
existed,  had  little  meaning  for  the  absoluteness  of  Stoic 
individualism.  The  ultimate  value  of  this  chiliastic  hope 
as  a  factor  in  thought  and  progress  is  too  often  overlooked, 
because  in  the  first  enthusiasm  of  this  larger  vision  the 
early  Christians,  as  Schweitzer  claims,  may  perhaps  have 
had  a  tendency  to  forget  the  common  duties  of  this  fife. 
The  claims  of  the  old  '  world  '  that  was  '  passing  away  with 
the  fashion  thereof,'  and  of  the  new  world  that  men '  greeted 
from  afar,'  were  not  always  easy  to  adjust,  and  in  their 
adjustment  {Interimsethik)  both  in  thought  and  life,  the 
Christians  of  the  second  century  were  not  always  successful. 

But  the  apocalyptic  literature  did  more  than  hold  out 
to  the  Church  a  new  world  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old. 
This  voluminous  literature  has  rightly  been  called  **  tracts 
for  hard  times."  It  was  a  literature  produced  by  a  sense 
of  antagonism  to  the  world-power ;  it  bears  on  its  pages 
the  marks  of  the  blood  and  fire  with  which  the  world- 
power  sought  to  crush  out  the  infant  Church.  When  in  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries  the  Church  conquered  the  State, 
apocalyptic  literature  lost  its  main  motive.  The  parousia 
was  pushed  into  the  dim  distance ;  the  world-power  was 
beneath  the  foot  of  the  saint.  Apocalyptic  literature 
became  discredited  and,  as  far  as  possible,  forgotten.  The 
fragments  that  survive,  like  some  fossil  remains,  bear 
witness  to  a  state  of  life  and  feeling  long  since  extinct. 

Yet  in  one  particular  the  motives  of  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture survived  its  discredit.  For  the  antagonism  of  the 
Church  to  the  world-force  rested  on  a  conviction  that  the 
Church  was  also  an  empire  that  lay  parallel  to,  outside 
of,  possibly  in  antagonism  to,  the  Roman  dominion.    In 


1.]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  16 

their  writings  Christians  professed  that  '  nothing  was  more 
ahen  to  them  than  politics '  ;  in  reaUty,  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  Roman  governor,  they  were  intense  politicians 
of  a  most  dangerous  type.  In  their  constant  persecutions 
the  basis  of  condemnation  by  the  magistrates  was  not  the 
theological  views  of  the  Christians — for  these  the  Roman 
magistrates  cared  little  or  nothing — but  their  supreme 
loyalty  to  a  law  and  to  a  throne  outside  the  Roman  law  and 
throne.  The  Christians  were  not  anxious  to  run  counter 
to  the  law  and  customs  of  the  Empire  ;  they  were,  in  fact, 
almost  unanimous  in  upholding  them.  But  if  at  any  time 
such  law  and  customs  came  into  conflict  with  the  will  of 
God,  as  interpreted  by  themselves  and  by  their  standards, 
they  must  obey  God  rather  than  man.  By  the  Roman 
executive  such  a  doctrine  could  not  be  regarded  as  other- 
wise than  revolutionary,  for  their  whole  political  theory, 
civil  and  reUgious,  was  built  up  on  the  absolutism  of  Caesar, 
and  demanded  complete  submission  of  life  and  will  from 
all  subjects.  Even  the  great  politician  maxim  of  Jesus  : 
"  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto 
God  the  things  that  are  God's,"  became  treasonable  in  a 
State  that  made  little  difference  between  Caesar  and  God. 
The  results  of  such  antagonism  were  seen  in  the  three 
centuries  of  persecution  through  which  the  Church  was 
called  to  pass,  in  reality  three  centuries  of  struggle  between 
the  incompatible  claims  of  Caesar  and  Christ.^  And  when 
the  era  of  persecution  had  passed  away,  the  consciousness 
of  the  Church  as  an  empire  in  possible  antagonism  and 
opposition  to  the  world-state  still  survived.  Of  this  we 
shall  see  the  full  fruition  in  the  rise  of  the  medieval  papacy 
and  the  growth  of  Canon  Law. 

In  another  direction  also  we  note  the  influence  of  this 
apocalyptic  Hterature,  and  of  the  spirit  which  gave  rise  to 
it.     The  tendency  to  develop  angelology,  and  the  con- 
tinuance in  the  Christian  Church  of  the  popular  belief 
1  On  all  this  see  Workman,  op.  cit.  chaps,  ii.  and  iy. 


16    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

in  demons,  powerfully  influenced  Christian  thought  for 
centuries  after  the  apocalyptic  literature  to  which  it  owed 
its  strength  had  been  forgotten.  But  for  the  apocalyptic 
literature,  or  rather  but  for  the  outlook  on  life  of  which 
it  was  the  expression,  it  is  possible  that  the  Church  might 
have  been  delivered  from  the  current  naturalistic  rehgion. 
As  it  was,  the  Church  renamed  the  old  fears  and  super- 
stitions to  mark  adoption,  and  put  these  back  in  their  old 
place  sealed  with  her  sign,  consecrated  to  her  service.  For 
a  thousand  years  we  find  the  effects  not  only  in  Christian 
life,  but  also  in  Christian  thought. 

The  strength  of  the  popular  belief  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
From  the  Emperor  on  the  throne  to  the  meanest  slave  men 
trembled  at  the  awful  powers  of  the  unknown,  and  trembled 
the  more  because  of  their  loss  of  religious  faith.  They 
peopled  the  heaven  and  earth  with  a  host  of  demons — 
*  daemons*  the  philosophers  vainly  called  them — and 
believed  with  all  their  hearts  in  the  alliance  of  magicians 
and  sorcerers  with  the  hordes  of  the  black  one.  Dreams 
and  omens  haunted  high  and  low  aUke. 

In  their  beUef  in  demons  and  other  supernatural  agencies 
the  Christians,  as  the  Jews  before  them,  were  not  before 
their  age,  save  in  their  grasp  of  the  supremacy  of  one  benign 
Father  of  good,  their  conviction  that  they  had  been  met 
and  overcome  by  the  Saviour.  Between  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  angels  and  devils  and  the  heathen  doctrine  of 
demons  there  are  so  many  coincidences  that  we  must  assume 
their  close  historical  connection.  For  the  Church  when  it 
laid  its  hold  on  the  soul  of  the  common  man  left  him  his 
ghosts.  Behind  every  idol  statue,  however  beautiful,  the 
followers  of  Jesus  diecemed  the  grinning  face  of  a  fiend. 
Not  only  were  the  demons  the  source  of  idolatry,  through 
them  also  the  natural  light  which  would  have  led  the 
philosophers  to  the  truth  had  been  turned  into  darkness. 
The  devil  and  his  angels  were  thus  terrible  reaUties,  whose 
evil  machinations,  as  Origen  tells  us,  were  only  thwarted 


l]  the  JEWISH  FACTORS  17 

by  the  ceaseless  vigilance  of  the  attendant  spirits  of  good. 
As  in  the  romance  of  Enoch,  archangels  and  demons 
struggled  for  the  soul  and  body,  nor  was  the  struggle 
one-sided.  For  the  demons,  in  the  words  of  Cassian  of 
Marseilles, '  fill  the  atmosphere  which  extends  between  earth 
and  heaven.'  In  the  demons,  on  the  contrary,  Plutarch 
finds  the  chain  which  unites  the  world  to  the  throne  of 
God ;  they  are  the  mediators  between  God  and  man,  the 
representatives  of  Providence.  Owing  to  their  speed  they 
are  almost  omniscient,  and  thus  '  attain  credit  for  causing 
that  which  they  announce.'  They  give  oracles,  prophecies, 
and  revelations  ;  they  cause  or  cure  diseases  ;  they  work 
miracles.  The  result  of  all  this  was  the  production  of  a 
state  of  thought,  once  universal,  now  so  discredited  that 
we  find  it  difficult  to  understand  its  former  hold.  Magical 
and  semi-magical  behefs  invaded  the  Church.  For  the 
Christian,  as  for  the  pagan,  the  miraculous  was  so  common, 
so  natural,  that  it  ceased  to  be  miraculous  ;  it  formed  part 
of  the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  universe.  Cyprian  in  his 
De  Lapsis  tells  us  stories  of  the  supernatural  power  of  the 
consecrated  elements  worthy  of  a  place  in  that  storehouse 
of  medieval  marvels  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach's  Dialogus 
Miraculorum.  St.  Augustine  solemnly  asserts  that  in  his 
own  diocese  of  Hippo  there  had  occurred  in  the  space  of 
two  years  no  less  than  seventy-two  miracles,  among  them 
five  cases  of  restoration  to  life.  But  illustrations  of  this 
belief  in  the  miraculous  are  almost  co-extensive  with  the 
literature  of  the  early  and  medieval  Church. 


IV 

Of  the  positive  ideas  in  Christian  thought  which  may  be 
traced  to  Jewish  philosophical  sources,  the  most  important 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  or  Reason  of  God  immanent  in 
the  creation  which  He  fosters  and  sustains.  The  name  and 
the  thought,  it  is  true,  are  fully  developed  in  the  Stoic  and 

B 


18    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Platonic  philosophies,  possibly  also  in  the  pre-Philonic 
Jewish  literature.  Nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that  their 
entrance  into  Christianity  should  be  attributed  to  the 
influence  of  the  Alexandrian  Jew,  Philo  ^  (b.  B.C.  20).  The 
object  of  Philo  was  to  reconcile  religion,  i.e.  Mosaism,  with 
philosophy,  i.e.  Platonism.  In  so  doing  he  contributed 
to  the  schools  of  Alexandria  a  general  stock  of  hazy 
and  unsystematised  ideas,  which  by  different  channels 
passed  into  current  Christian  and  Hellenic  thought.  His 
most  lasting  contribution  was  the  change  of  the  half- 
personified  '  Wisdom  '  of  early  Jewish  Alexandrian  writers, 
e.g.  the  author  of  Proverbs  viii.,  into  the  Logos.  The  result 
was  remarkable.  "  Philo's  Logos  reflects  light  from  count- 
less facets.  It  is  one  of  those  creative  phrases  which  mark 
an  epoch  in  the  development  of  thought."  "  God  holds 
a  place  m  all  systems  subsequent  to  Philo  such  as  He  had 
never  held  in  those  prior  to  Him."  ^  From  Philo  the  idea 
passed  to  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  though  worked 
out  in  a  very  different  way ;  while  Justin,  Clement,  and 
Origen  all  show  their  indebtedness  to  the  Jewish  thinker, 
whose  system  anticipates  much  that  is  found  in  later 
Neoplatonism. 

According  to  Philo  the  Logos  is  the  '  Idea  of  ideas ' ;  the 
'  ideas '  or  content  of  the  mind  of  God  being  identified,  in 
a  characteristic  Jewish  manner,  with  the  angels.  From 
this  the  transition  is  easy  to  the  conception  of  the  Logos 
as  the  wisdom  of  God  expressing  itself  in  act,  and  as  there- 
fore the  agent  in  creation.  Philo  goes  so  far  as  to  call  this 
Logos  *  a  second  God,'  a  '  divine  Angel.'  "He  is  the 
eternal  image  of  the  Father,  and  we,  who  are  not  yet  fit  to 
be  called  sons  of  God,  may  call  ourselves  His  sons."  * 

The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Logos  of  necessity  differed 
from  that  of  Philo,  if  only  because  it  had  reference  to  a 
reaUsed  Incarnation.     Philo,  on  the  contrary,  had  left  no 

*  Bigg,  op.  cit.  p.  16.  •  Fairbairn,  Christ  in  Modem  Theology^  p.  66. 

•  lage,  Christian  Mysticism,  p.  86. 


L]  THE  JEWISH  FACTORS  19 

room  for  an  Incarnation.  With  the  Christians,  moreover, 
the  conception  of  the  Logos  was  developed  so  as  to  meet 
Gnostic  heresy,  especially  its  docetism.  Hence  causation 
is  a  mark  rather  of  exaltation  than  of  inferiority  ;  the 
revealed  Creator  is  the  *  glory  '  of  God.  With  the  Gnostic 
the  divine  Energy  is  degraded  as  it  approaches  the  sphere 
of  material  existence.  Yet  "  In  one  remarkable  point 
the  ideal  of  Christianity  was  in  danger  of  falling  below 
that  of  Philo.  For  there  was  a  tendency  in  less  philoso- 
phical minds  to  distinguish  between  the  unspoken  and  the 
spoken  Word,  to  conceive  of  the  Divine  Reason  or  Logos 
as  at  first  immanent  in  the  mind  of  the  Father,  then 
assuming  hypostasis  for  the  purpose  of  Creation."  ^  The 
effect  of  this  was  seen  later  in  the  doctrine  that  the  Son 
is  the  '  thought '  of  the  Father,  who  is  Himself  trans- 
cendental and  absolute,  who  cannot  be  known,  but  only 
approached  by  Vision  or  Ecstasy. ^ 

1  Bigg,  op.  cit.  pp.  60-65.  Bigg  points  out,  op.  cit.  pp.  203-4,  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Logos  in  the  Stoics,  though  earlier  than  Philo,  must  be  passed 
by,  as  with  the  Stoics  the  Logos  is  really  the  First  Cause. 

2  Infra,  pp.  52,  200  f.  There  is  an  excellent  chapter  on  the  theology  of 
Philo  in  E.  Caird's  Evolution  of  Theology  in  the  Greek  PhUosophen,  vol.  ii. 
C.21. 


20    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [oh. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  INFLUENCE   OF   HELLAS 
Argument 

§  I.  The  meaning  of  Hellenisation — Its  slower  jrrowth — 
The  spiritual  revival  in  the  pagan  world — Syncretism 
— Apollonius  of  Tyana pp.  21-25 

§  II.  Defects  of  Greek  thought  —  Its  services  —  Eclectic 
character  of — Stoicism  —  Cynicism  —  The  Platonic 
trinity  —  Henotheism  —  *  Deification '  in  Christian 
thought — The  touchstone  of  faith     .        .        .pp.  25-31 

§  III.  Gnosticism — Its  problems  and  sects — Meaning  of 
— Witness  of  Gnosticism  to  Christ — Later  history 
of — Manichaeism  —  The  Cathari — Their  twofold 
morality pp.  31-39 

§  IV.  The  Apologists — Their  appeal — Differences  with  the 
Gnostics  —  Their  doctrine  of  the  Logos  —  Their 
Doctrine  of  Atonement pp.  39-44 

§  V.  Clement  and  Origen  —  Their  work  and  influence — 
Attitude  to  Gnosticism  —  Alexandria  —  The  Stro- 
mateis — Their  teaching — Origenism — Place  of  the 
will— Universalism — Defects  of  the  Alexandrians — 
Doctrine  of  Atonement — Ransom  paid  to  Satan — 
History  of  this  doctrine — Their  doctrine  of  the  In- 
carnation— Condemnation  of  Origenism    .        .    pp.  44-56 

§  VI.  Neoplatonism— Value  and  meaning  of— Plotinus— Influ- 
ence of  Neoplatonism  on  Christianity      ,        ,    pp.  56-60 


U.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  21 


From  the  Jewish  influences  which  moulded  Christian 
thought  we  pass  to  the  Hellenic.  As  forces  "  Hebraism 
and  Hellenism  stand  out  distinct,  the  one  in  all  the  intensity 
of  its  rehgious  life,  the  other  in.  the  wealth  and  diversity  of 
its  secular  gifts  and  graces,  and  in  the  depth  of  its  philo- 
sophic insight. 

"  Thus  the  sharp  contrasts  of  the  sculptor's  plan 

Showed  the  two  primal  paths  our  race  has  trod ; — 
Hellas  the  nurse  of  man  complete  as  man, 
Judaea  pregnant  with  *the  living  God.'"^ 

Hellas  was  necessary  to  Judaea,  if  Christianity  was  to 
receive  its  fulness  of  meaning,  if  the  Messiah  of  Nazareth 
was  ever  to  become  the  Christ  of  the  world  instead  of  the 
possession  of  a  single  people.  There  is  a  school  of  theo- 
logians the  chief  representatives  of  which,  though  from 
different  reasons,  are  Hamack  and  Ritschl,  which  con- 
stantly deplores  what  it  calls  the  "  Hellenising  of  the 
primitive  faith."  The  developments  which  Christianity 
received  from  its  contact  with  the  Greek  world  are  treated 
as  if  they  were  doubtful  growths,  oftentimes  of  a  fungus 
order,  from  which  the  Church  would  be  well  to  free  itself 
by  a  "  return  to  Jesus."  Such  a  conception  seems  to  us 
to  be  wrong.  Greek  philosophy  had  a  divine  function  in 
the  world  as  well  as  Mosaic  law.  The  story  of  the  Church, 
in  its  truest  sense,  is  the  record  of  the  education  of  the 
human  race  in  all  things  that  belong  to  the  spirit.  It  is 
essentially,  therefore,  the  story  of  a  development  of  the 

1  S.  H.  Butcher,  Harvard  Lcctv/res,  p.  42. 


22    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

whole  "  in  Jesus  Christ " — the  full  import  of  this  Pauhne 
phrase  can  never  be  exhausted.  As  we  turn  its  pages  we 
see  the  unfolding  of  the  relation  of  every  age  to  the  one 
Centre  of  all  ages,  the  assimilation  by  the  one  Life  of  all 
true  thought  and  life.  To  us,  therefore,  *  Hellenisation ' 
was  a  necessary  factor  in  the  growth  of  the  Church,  and 
part  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  The  construction  of 
Christianity  through  the  media  of  the  older  philosophies 
and  religions  was  a  necessary  prelude  to  its  construction 
by  a  spirit  and  through  a  consciousness  of  its  own  creation. 
The  absolute  ideal  had,  in  order  to  be  intelligible,  to  use 
constituted  and  familiar  vehicles,  but  only  that  it  might 
win  the  opportunity  of  fashioning  vehicles  worthier  of  its 
nature  and  fitter  for  its  end."  ^  The  story  of  Hellenisation 
is  not  the  story  of  degeneration,  but  the  study  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  Spirit  worked,  and  of  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  life  of  which  He  has  ever  been,  imder  different 
forms  and  in  diverse  ihanners,  the  Lord  and  Giver.  "  The 
partial  Hellenising  and  Latinising  of  Christian  thought  and 
terminology,  which  began  soon  after  the  end  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Age,  may  not  have  been  without  danger  to  the  Faith, 
but  few  will  now  doubt  that  valuable  results  have  followed. 
If  we  owe  to  these  processes  certain  accretions  which  do 
not  harmonise  with  primitive  simplicity,  on  the  other  hand 
they  enriched  the  Christian  society  with  much  that  ap- 
pealed to  the  thought  and  imagination  of  the  centuries 
through  which  it  had  to  pass  ;  nor  would  any  thoughtful 
believer  at  the  present  day  willingly  abandon  the  best 
heirlooms  that  the  Church  has  received  from  the  Greek 
East  or  the  Latin  West."  ^ 

The  Hellenic  spirit,  though  of  greater  importance  than 
the  Jewish  in  the  development  as  opposed  to  the  birth  of 
Christian  thought,  was  later  in  producing  any  real  influence. 
The  preparatory  work  of  the  Hebrew  religion  had  first  to 

»  Fairbaira,  Christ  in  Modem  Theology,  p.  62. 

*  H.  B.  Swete  In  Cambridge  Theological  £ssa]ft,  p.  10. 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  23 

be  consolidated.  In  the  New  Testament,  though  written 
in  Greek,  specifically  Hellenic  ideas,  as  distinct  from 
Jewish  ideas  in  Hellenic  dress,  have  little  place,  even  in 
the  teaching  of  St.  Paul,  or  in  the  prologue  to  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  The  consciousness  of  universalism,  upon  the 
Greek  character  of  which  stress  has  often  been  laid,  might 
with  equal  right  claim  to  have  been  Roman,  the  opposition 
of  the  two  empires  of  Christ  and  of  Caesar.  As  such  it  was 
recognised  by  Roman  governors  as  the  political  ground  of 
persecution.  But  with  the  gradual  submergence  of  the 
Jewish  Christians,  and  the  weakening  authority  of  their 
apocalyptic  literature,  Greece  came  to  her  own.  Justin 
Martyr  tells  us  that  only  in  his  own  day  had  the  Gentiles 
in  the  Church  begun  to  outnumber  the  Jews.  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  that  with  Justin  Martyr  we  begin  the 
triumph  of  Hellenic  culture,  and  the  modification  of  the 
primitive  simplicity  of  Christianity.  The  word  "  theo- 
logy "  itself,  first  found  in  Justin,  seems  to  have  been 
borrowed  by  him  from  the  Stoics.  Slowly,  unconsciously, 
but  surely,  Greek  moral  ideas  and  ideals  penetrated  Chris- 
tian thought,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Judaism  of  the 
Dispersion  had  been  altered,  even  before  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  by  the  Hellenism  with  which  it  was  surrounded. 
The  influence  of  Hellenic  thought  upon  Christianity  was 
increased  by  the  growing  religious  seriousness  of  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world.  The  advent  of  Christianity  coincided  with  a 
great  spiritual  fermentation  in  the  heathen  world,^  which 
showed  itself  not  merely  in  the  rapid  spread  of  the  newer 
cults,  the  worship  of  Isis,  of  Mithra,  and  the  hke,  but  in  the 
revival  of  belief  in  the  older  faiths  and  forms  ;  in  a  renewed 
study  of  the  Platonic  philosophy  ;  in  the  rush  of  smiths 
and  carpenters  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Cynic  friars  ;  above 
all  in  the  growth  throughout  Europe  of  a  social  conscience. 
We  see  this  awakened  conscience  in  the  guilds  and  charities, 

1  On  this  see  Dill,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  Marcus  Aureliics,  bk.  iii. 
chap.  iii.  and  bk.  iv. 


24    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

the  constant  efforts  to  extend  and  endow  education,  to 
found  orphanages  and  hospitals,  to  emancipate  women,  and 
to  rescue  the  slave  from  the  unlimited  power  of  his  lord, 
which  form  the  nobler  features  of  the  legislation  of  the 
Antonines.  At  the  root  of  this  larger  ethical  ideal  there 
lay  an  increase  of  spirituality.  Repentance,  expiation, 
immortahty,  the  belief  that  man  can  enter  into  union  with 
God,  became  potent  factors  in  the  better  life  of  the  times. 
That  this  upward  movement  of  thought  and  creed,  of 
which  on  the  one  side  Mithraism,  on  the  other  the  teachings 
of  Epictetus,  were  the  best  expressions,  undoubtedly  helped 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  Christianity  seems  to  us  a  cer- 
tainty ;  nay,  who  shall  say  that  this  upward  movement 
was  not  the  work  of  the  Spirit  fulfilling  Himself  in  diverse 
ways  ?  But  the  first  effects  were  curiously  mixed.  Chris- 
tianity and  the  revived  paganism  both  repelled  and 
attracted  each  other  ;  their  mutual  influence  is  as  certain 
as  is  the  fierceness  of  the  conflict  into  which  they  plunged. 

One  result  of  this  spiritual  uplifting  of  paganism  thus 
coinciding  with  the  rise  of  the  Church  was  syncretism, 
both  philosophic  and  practical,  or  that  tendency  to  find 
unity  and  identity  amidst  the  multitudinous  details  of 
polytheism,  the  most  familiar  example  of  which  is  the 
identification  of  the  gods  of  Greece  and  Rome.  In  the 
second  and  third  centuries  syncretism  especially  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  popular  faiths,  e.g.  the  worship  of  the 
Great  Mother,  of  Isis,  or  of  Mithra,  in  a  willingness  to 
assimilate  the  best  elements  in  any  cult,  Christianity 
included.  It  was  this  that  gave  to  these  religions  their 
strength.  Their  aim  was  the  union  of  all  gods  and  all 
myths  in  a  vast  synthesis.  They  were  willing  not  only  to 
live  and  let  live,  but  to  take  up  and  make  part  of  themselves 
whatever  features  of  religion  seemed  especially  popular  or 
serviceable. 

Equally  remarkable  was  the  tendency  to  sjmcretism  on 
the  part  of  the  philosophic  sects.     Of  this  syncretism  the 


il]  the  influence  of  HELLAS  26 

noblest  expression  was  Neoplatonism,  the  most  curious  the 
Liife  of  Apolloniiis,  a  third-century  philosophico-reHgious 
romance,  founded  on  a  certain  substratum  of  fact,  com- 
posed by  the  sophist  Philostratus  at  the  command  of 
Juha  Domna  (t217),  the  wife  of  Septimius  Severus.  In 
this  apotheosis  of  the  dying  paganism  the  story  of  Jesus 
is  re-edited,  and  improved  so  as  to  suit  heathen  notions.^ 
The  effect  of  this  syncretism  was  undoubtedly  in  the  long 
run  the  bringing  Christianity  and  current  thought  into 
closer  touch.  Christianity,  it  is  true,  especially  in  its 
earlier  and  purer  days,  refused  any  compromise  with  other 
faiths.  *  Et  ipse  pileatus,  Christianus  est ' — '  That  man 
with  the  Mithraic  cap  is  a  Christian,'  said  a  priest  of  Mithra 
to  St.  Augustine,  who  started  back  in  horror  from  this 
attempt  to  identify  his  faith  with  this  '  devils'  imitation.' 
But  all  men  were  not  so  uncompromising  in  their  convic- 
tions as  St.  Augustine.  The  most  potent  approximations 
between  rival  faiths  and  opinions  are  generally  sub- 
conscious, and  marked  with  open  professions  of  hostility. 
So  with  Christianity  and  the  revived  paganism,  with  its 
ally  in  Greek  thought.  The  two  influenced  each  other 
more  profoundly  than  we  should  gather  from  the  opposing 
arguments  between  the  Fathers  and  Celsus  and  Porphyry. 


n 

At  the  outset  of  our  treatment  it  were  well  to  remember 
the  capital  defects  of  Greek  thought,  for  these,  as  we  shall 
see,  constantly  appear  in  the  influence  of  Hellenism  upon 
Christianity.  One  source  of  error  was  the  general  in- 
capacity to  distinguish  illustration  from  argument.  Ana- 
logy unverified  by  experiment,  daring  leaps  from  the  known 
to  the  unknown,  and  then  back  again  from  the  guesses  thus 

1  It  is  right  to  point  out  that  many  modern  critics  attach  more  indepen- 
dence and  historicity  to  the  narrative.     See  Hastings,  E.R.E.  i.  610-611. 


26    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

deemed  to  be  knowledge  to  the  known,  were  construed  as  if 
equivalent  to  reasoned  demonstration.  Another  danger 
was  the  tendency  to  mere  abstractions ;  philosophers 
seemed  to  think  the  greater  the  abstraction,  the  greater 
the  truth.  In  the  abstractions  of  geometry  the  Greeks 
had  made  remarkable  progress,  and  reached  definite, 
certain  conclusions.  They  supposed  that  the  abstractions 
of  metaphysics  could  be  traced  in  the  same  way.  In 
consequence  they  identified  abstractions  with  realities,  and 
names  with  things.  Top  often,  as  Jowett  puts  it,  "  they 
were  mastered  by  their  ideas,  and  not  masters  of  them." 
For  the  most  part  also  the  ancients  were  "  helpless  against 
the  influence  of  any  word  which  had  an  equivocal  or  double 
sense  "  ;  *  while  they  suffered  much  from  the  tyranny  "of 
numbers,  in  which  they  were  disposed  to  find  the  secret  of 
the  universe.  Add  a  rude  science,  totally  unacquainted 
with  the  slower  but  surer  path  of  the  modem  inductive 
philosophy.  The  result  is  seen  in  such  extraordinary 
phantasies  as  the  aeons  of  the  Gnostics,  or  the  speculations 
of  Origen  on  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  are  they  animated 
and  rational ;  shall  they  finally  be  brought  into  the  great 
unity  where  God  shall  be  all  in  all  ? 

One  charaicteristic  of  Greek  thought  which  had  a  remark- 
able influence  upon  Christianity — though  whether  for  good 
or  bad  may  be  deemed  a  moot  point — is  its  tendency  to 
insist  upon  definition,  even  of  the  undefinable.  Hence 
the  inclination  to  over-subtlety,  always  one  of  the  vices  to 
which  the  Greek  intellect  was  prone,  most  disastrous  of  all 
when  applied  to  spiritual  phenomena.  We  shall  see  the 
effects  in  the  controversies  with  respect  to  the  Person  of 
Christ.  Approved  definitions  came  to  be  regarded  as 
synonymous  with  the  faith ;  slight  differences  as  legi- 
timate ground  for  excommunication.  Inferences  from 
definitions  were  treated  as  if  they  were  the  realities  of 
experience. 

1  Jowett,  Dialogues  qf  Plato,  iii.  559-567. 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  27 

A  more  important  defect  of  Greek  thought  has  been 
well  set  forth  by  Dr.  Fairbairn :  "  The  philosophies  that 
had  owed  their  being  to  the  Greek  genius  were  made  in  the 
image  of  Greek  man,  but  even  he  had  too  narrow  a  humanity 
behind  and  around  as  well  as  within  him  to  be  just  to  man 
universal,  and  so  his  systems  had  feeling  enough  for  the 
Hellenic  individual  and  state,  but  not  for  mankind  collective 
and  historical.  They  were  too  appreciative  of  the  philo- 
sophers who  ought  to  govern  to  be  just  to  the  manhood 
which  needed  government.  They  started  outside  religion, 
and  became  religious  only  by  force  of  reason,  and  in  its 
terms.  Their  theistic  conception  was  metaphysical  rather 
than  ethical,  never  even  in  its  ethics  transcending  meta- 
physics, ever  remaining  an  object  of  contemplation  or 
thought,  never  becoming  an  object  of  worship  and  con- 
science." ^  The  effect  of  this  upon  the  development  of 
Christian  theology  will  be  abundantly  illustrated  in  these 
pages. 

But  the  defects  of  Greek  thought  were  small  in  com- 
parison with  the  services  Hellas  rendered,  both  to  civili- 
sation and  Christian  theology.  To  the  Greeks  we  owe  the 
discovery  of  the  sovereign  efficacy  of  reason.  In  the  words 
of  Euripides,  they  deemed  him  alone  '  happy  who  has 
learned  to  search  into  causes.'  Hence  the  conception  of 
law,  both  in  the  physical  and  moral  worlds,  became  firmly 
fixed  in  the  Greek  mind.  From  this  it  further  resulted 
that  the  Greek  philosopher  was  always  thinking  of  the 
world  as  a  rational  whole,  and  he  compelled  the  theologian 
to  do  the  same.  In  spite  of  the  premature  generalisations 
into  which  his  crude  science  led  him,  this  conception  of 
unity  was  of  inestimable  value  in  the  training  of  mankind. 
Without  this  conception  of  unity  Theology  as  a  science 
would  have  had  little  chance  of  development.  In  Ethics, 
also,  for  man  to  feel  habitually  that  he  is  part  of  the  order 
of  the  universe  is  one  of  the  highest  motives  of  which  he 

1  Fairbairn,  op.  cit.  p.  tt4. 


28    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

is  capable.  When  the  Greek  set  before  himself  as  the 
paramount  end  the  perfection  of  his  whole  nature — 
*  nothing  human  alien  to  him ' — he  introduced  into  the 
Church  a  conception  which,  in  the  long  run,  was  destined 
to  be  destructive  of  many  early  ideas.  Monasticism,  to 
give  but  one  example,  was  not  able  to  survive  the  renais- 
sance in  the  fifteenth  century  of  the  Greek  spirit. 

When  Greek  thought  first  came  into  touch  with  Chris- 
tianity it  had  assumed  a  form  that  might  lead  to  sympathy 
and  understanding.  The  ancient  schools  had  worked 
themselves  out.  In  their  despair  of  truth  from  any  one 
school,  men  were  now  less  inclined  to  form  dogmatic 
systems  than  to  select  and  combine.  Moreover,  the 
craving  was  not  so  much  for  bold  speculations,  such  as  we 
find  in  the  prime  of  Greek  thought,  as  for  some  basis  of 
moral  fife,  some  inner  law  which  should  bring  order  into  the 
chaos  of  desires.  Ancient  philosophy  had  in  a  sense  died 
away  into  theology.  The  Stoic  proclaimed,  though  in 
different  words,  that  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  "  ; 
while  Epictetus  insisted  that  logic  must  be  subordinated 
to  moral  reformation.  The  Stoic's  religion  of  '*  ethical 
Calvinism,"  as  we  may  describe  it,  had  no  yearning,  it  is 
true,  either  for  prayer,  or  for  all  that  to  the  Christian  is 
contained  in  the  idea  of  a  future  life — that  opportunity 
for  completing  the  incomplete,  for  making  life's  crooked 
straight.  In  this,  as  in  its  intense  individuahsm.  Stoicism 
is  a  religion  of  despair.  The  Stoics  "  made  solitude  in  the 
heart  and  called  it  peace."  ^  But  the  Stoic  proclaimed 
that  man  was  free  to  break  away  from  his  cruel  servitude 
to  passion,  through  the  strength  of  the  rational  or  divine 
element  in  his  soul,  and  that  obedience  to  this  law  of  reason 
and  of  nature,  *  living  harmoniously,'  will  infallibly  lead  to 
the  highest  good,  the  freedom  which  makes  him  a  fellow- 
citizen  of  the  gods.  Moreover,  this  law  of  conduct  is  only 
part  of  natural  refigion,  the  movement  of  the  world  as  one 

1  T.  R.  QloTer,  The  Confiict  qf  Religions  in  early  Roman  Empire,  p.  67. 


n.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  29 

polity  under  the  *  Spermaticos  Logos '  or  governing  intelli- 
gence. So  the  good  man  will  realise  that  he  is  of  neces- 
sity a  citizen  in  the  universal  commonwealth,  and  cannot, 
therefore,  '  live  to  himself.'  In  Stoicism  also,  to  mention 
another  point  of  contact,  the  conception  of  God  as  cold, 
impersonal  Law  is  always  giving  way  to  the  thought  of  a 
God  of  providence,  '  who  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us.' 

We  must  not  overlook  the  influence  of  what  has  been 
called  the  Platonic  Trinity.  In  the  Timaeus  of  Plato  we 
have  the  three  conceptions  of  God  :  the  Ideas  or  permanent 
realities  which  remain  unchanged  amid  all  changes,  and  the 
World-Spirit,  this  last  being  formed  according  to  the  pattern 
of  the  Ideas,  which  again  are  subordinate  to  God,  though 
possessing  an  independent  eternal  existence.  Though 
Plato  himself  never  attempted  to  harmonise  this  triad, 
the  unknown  author  or  authors  of  the  so-called  Epistles  of 
Plato  speaks  of  them  as  Three  Gods.  Shortly  before  the 
time  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  the  Platonist  philosopher, 
Numenius,  a  Syrian  of  Apamea,  conceived  of  these  Ideas, 
which  possessed  a  substantive  existence  outside  the  Divine 
Mind,  as  gathered  into  one,  the  divine  Arch-Idea.  Of  his 
trinity  the  first  is  thus  Mind,  simple,  changeless,  good,  and 
wise  ;  the  second  is  the  Creator  ;  the  third  is  the  World- 
Spirit.  But  how  much  of  this  conception  of  a  trinity  was 
derived  from  Jewish  or  Christian  sources,  to  what  extent 
this  philosophic  conception  made  more  easy  the  adoption 
of  Christian  dogma,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  approach  to  Christian 
monotheism.  In  a  recent  work  Dr.  E.  Caird  has  shown 
the  stages  by  which  Greek  thought  advanced  from  the 
belief  in  many  deities  to  the  acknowledgment  of  a  divine 
unity.i  Pure  monotheism  was  reached  by  few ;  the 
majority  took  refuge  in  henotheism,  or  the  belief  in  the  sub- 
stantial identity  of  all  the  deities  worshipped  by  the  vulgar 
under  distinct  names ;  really  an  intermediate  stage  between 
1  E.  Caird,  Evolution  of  Theology  in  Greek  Philosophers. 


30    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

polytheism,  or  the  assertion  of  the  absolute  existence  of 
the  diverse  deities,  and  monotheism,  or  the  proclamation 
that  God  is  one.  Henotheism,  through  lack  of  any  real 
repugnance  to  the  current  forms  of  idolatry,  preserved  in 
a  confused  way  the  personality  of  the  different  deities, 
and  so,  in  spite  of  its  leanings  to  monotheism,  in  its  prac- 
tical outcome  sided  with  paganism.  The  moral  value  of 
henotheism  was  thus  slight.  Nevertheless,  when  Celsus 
insists  that  all  men  really  worship  the  same  God,  whether 
called  '  Jehovah,  Jah,  or  Lord,'  we  see  forces  at  work  which 
rendered  more  easy  the  triumph  of  a  monotheistic  faith. 

There  was  one  curious  influence  of  the  Greek  world  upon 
the  theology,  or  rather  the  language  of  theology,  of  the 
Church,  the  effect  of  which  was  felt  until  modem  times. 
We  refer  to  the  free  use  of  the  idea  of  '  deification  '  by  the 
Fathers  of  both  East  and  West  to  express  the  highest 
state  of  spiritual  experience,  when  man  "  is  lost  in  God." 
The  term  seems  first  to  have  arisen  in  the  Mysteries  ;  '  dei- 
fication '  was  the  idea  of  salvation  that  they  taught.  From 
the  Mysteries  the  idea  passed  into  Christian  thought,  with, 
however,  a  significance  of  its  own.  "  If  we  try  to  analyse 
the  concept  of  ^eos  thus  loosely  and  widely  used  we  find 
that  the  predominant  idea  was  that  exemption  from  the 
doom  of  death  was  the  prerogative  of  a  Divine  Being,  and 
that  therefore  the  gift  of  immortality  is  itself  a  deifica- 
tion.*' ^  The  idea  of  the  deification  of  man  was  more  than 
the  corollary  of  the  belief  in  the  incarnation  of  God.  It 
was  the  expression  of  the  eschatological  hope  in  which 
Christianity  was  nurtured,  the  correspondence  in  the  mind 
and  soul  of  the  individual  to  the  vision  of  the  City  of  God 
as  an  established  polity  among  men. 

Before  we  enter  upon  our  more  detailed  examination 
the  reader  would  do  well  to  note  that  the  great  touch- 
stone of  the  Christian  Faith,  as  distinct  from  philosophical 

»  See  In(?e,  Christian  Mysticism,  App.  0.,  for  detailed  investigation,  or 
Harnack,  U.D.,  Index,  a. v.  'deification.' 


IL]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  31 

speculations,  will  always  be  found  in  a  real  theory  of  the 
Atonement,  and  a  piercing  and  profound  sense  of  sin  which 
cannot  be  explained  away  into  a  shallow,  feeble,  and  vague 
abstraction  or  negation.  The  optimism  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy never  really  grappled  with  the  problem  of  evil  or 
understood  its  dire  significance.  In  consequence,  to  the 
Greek  the  Cross  was  ever  '  foolishness,'  and  Greek  thought 
is  constantly  making  desperate  efforts  to  explain  it  away. 
To  Celsus  the  Cross  was  one  of  the  gravest  objections  to 
Christianity.  In  the  lAfe  of  Apollonius  the  details  of  the 
Crucifixion  are  changed  into  a  mysterious  translation  to 
heaven.  But,  whatever  other  compromise  might  be  made 
with  current  speculation,  the  Cross  was  too  vital  to  be 
surrendered.  In  the  philosophic  syncretisms  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries  the  Cross — and  its  consequent  doctrine 
of  the  reality  of  sin — remains  the  one  great  dividing  line 
between  faith  and  unbelief,  between  a  reformed  heathenism 
and  Christianity.  To  many  Greeks  the  conception  of  an 
Incarnation  was  not  difficult,  though  Celsus  will  have  none 
of  it.  But  the  great  idea  of  the  Kenosis  involved  in  the 
Incarnation,  the  root  idea  which  links  the  life  of  the 
Redeemer  to  His  death  and  which  constitutes  His  life  the 
profoundest  revelation  of  Divine  Love,  was  altogether  alien. 
It  is  by  its  fidehty  to  these  great  principles  that  we  must 
discern  between  Greek  and  Christian  thought,  and  also 
determine  the  consistency  of  Christian  thinkers  with  their 
basic  ideas.  Modernisation  or  assimilation,  whether  in  the 
second  or  twentieth  century,  if  faithful  to  these,  is  not  to  be 
dreaded ;  but,  if  faithless,  the  ship  is  at  sea,  far  from  the 
shore  she  has  left,  far  from  the  shore  for  which  she  is  making. 


m 

The  first  effect  of  the  contact  of  Christianity  with 
Hellenism  was  somewhat  disastrous  for  the  Church.  Tlie 
meeting  of  the  two  streams  led  to  a  welter,  in  the  whirl- 


32    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

pools  of  which  many  were  lost.  For  two  centuries  the 
history  of  the  Church  is  the  history  of  its  struggle  with 
heretical  beliefs.  The  student  of  these  heresies,  as  he 
turns  over  the  pages  of  their  '  refutations '  by  Irenaeus  or 
Hippolytus,  is  bewildered  by  their  number,  amazed  by 
their  extravagance.  A  classification  or  enumeration  lies 
outside  our  purpose ;  it  must  sufiice  that  we  point  out 
their  main  drifts.  We  may  observe  that  such  heresies 
were  inevitable  ;  they  were  the  necessary  result  of  the 
growing  thought  of  the  age  as  to  the  meaning  and  content 
of  the  Christian  idea.  Only  slowly  and  by  sad  experience 
could  the  Church  discover  what  were  the  real  limits  of 
thought  in  its  application  to  faith,  or  what  opinions  were 
incompatible  with  the  primitive  deposit.  Many  of  these 
heresies  were  the  results  of  a  praiseworthy  but  premature 
attempt  to  set  up  the  Christian  faith  in  complete  and 
systematic  form  in  all  its  relations  to  the  world  around. 
By  the  subtle  discussions  issuing  in  clearer  views  to  which 
these  heresies  gave  rise  they  really  rendered  no  small 
service  to  theological  science. 

Of  these  heresies  the  most  conspicuous  group  was 
Gnosticism,  the  basis  of  which  was  an  eclectic  philosophy 
of  religion  chiefly  Hellenic  in  character,  though  in  union 
with  many  Oriental  elements,  cosmical  speculations,  and 
mystic  theosophy  similar  to  what  we  find  in  Hinduism. 
Gnosticism,  unfortunately,  is  almost  wholly  known  to  us 
from  its  opponents,  who  have  made  the  most  of  its  fan- 
tastic speculations,  obscuring  thereby  its  real  significance. 
Gnosticism,  on  its  theoretical  side — for  its  ascetic  prin- 
ciples and  its  ritual  system  do  not  here  concern  us — was 
an  attempt  to  transform  Christianity  into  a  philosophy  of 
history,  and  a  revealed  system  of  ethical  cosmology.  The 
second  century,  the  flourishing  period  of  Gnostic  sects, 
was  pre-eminently  noted  for  its  syncretism,  the  desire  to 
fuse  together  the  diverse  myths,  philosophies,  religions, 
and  mysteries  of  the  civilised  world.    In  Gnosticism  this 


11.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  38 

tendency  tried  to  find  lodgment  in  the  Church  itself.  It 
is  typical  of  Gnosticism,  and  of  its  lack  of  any  true  idea 
of  the  historical  development  of  the  faith,  that  in  one  of 
its  schools  the  image  of  Jesus  was  placed  side  by  side 
with  those  of  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and  Aristotle. 

If  the  earlier  Gnostic  developments  were  Judaic  in 
character,  they  soon  became  secondary  to  the  Hellenic. 
Through  Greece,  also,  the  religions  of  Persia  and  India, 
with  their  systems  of  incarnations  and  emanations,  made 
their  contributions.  The  problems  of  Gnosticism  were,  in 
the  main,  two  :  the  first  philosophical — the  nature  of  the 
Absolute,  and  the  method  whereby  the  Absolute  can  be 
the  creator  of  matter ;  the  second  ethical — the  origin  of 
evil.  The  first  of  these  was  predominantly  Hellenic  ;  "  the 
ideas  of  Plato  seen  through  the  fog  of  an  Egjrptian  or 
Syrian  mind."  ^  In  the  second  we  trace  the  Oriental  ele- 
ments, for  the  religious  thought  of  the  East  was  always 
deeply  imbued  with  the  sense  of  evil.  Gnosticism,  which 
Domer  has  happily  called  "the  Pelagianism  of  the  intel- 
lect," sought  an  answer  to  these  questions  by  its  claim  to 
a  deeper  insight  or  knowledge  (yi/wo-is)  than  the  Pistis  or 
faith  of  the  ordinary  Christian.  It  was  essentially  an 
esoteric  Christianity,  which  differed  widely  in  its  tenets 
according  to  its  local  habitation — Alexandria,  Syria,  Asia 
Minor,  or  Rome — and  the  degree  of  admixture  of  East  and 
West.  Of  the  Syrian  Gnosis,  the  leader  was  Satuminus, 
who  flourished  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian.  Allied  with  him 
were  the  Ophites,  Naassenes,  Peratae,  and  others,  who 
seem  to  have  mixed  their  Christianity  with  snake- worship. 
In  Alexandria  the  Gnostics  looked  up  to  Basilides  and 
Valentinus  (fl.  140),  whose  eclectic  system  is  the  best  known 
of  all,  as,  in  fact,  it  was  the  most  widely  diffused.  With 
Basilides  the  leading  thought  is  the  continuity  of  the 
religious  development  of  the  world  ;  between  Christianity 
and  the  other  religions  he  recognises  little  or  no  break  or 

1  Biggi  Christian  Platonists,  p.  27. 
C 


34    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

distinction.  In  Roman  Gnosticism  the  leader  was  Marcion, 
with  whose  tenets  in  their  antagonism  to  Judaism  we  have 
already  dealt.  But  the  Gnostic  elements  in  Marcion's 
teaching — chief  of  which  were  the  opposition  between  the 
good  God  of  love,  first  revealed  in  Jesus,  and  the  creator 
of  the  world,  and  the  docetism  which  such  a  view  logically 
demanded  as  to  the  humanity  of  Jesus — were  not,  on  the 
whole,  of  great  importance  for  Marcion's  system. 

Amid  all  the  diversities  of  Gnostic  creed  we  may  discern 
certain  fundamental  agreements.  The  treatise  which  more 
than  any  other  powerfully  affected  the  religious  thought  of 
the  second  century  was  the  Timaeus  of  Plato.  In  this  we 
find  the  Deity,  in  spite  of  His  essential  goodness,  with- 
drawn from  the  world  into  a  distant  heav^en,  aloof  alto- 
gether from  creation,  because  of  the  evil  which  matter 
necessarily  brings.^  In  a  similar  manner  the  Gnostic,  in 
common  with  the  majority  of  Greek  thinkers,  in  his 
dualistic  opposition  between  matter  and  spirit,  identified 
matter  with  evil.  Hence  he  refused  to  recognise  in  the 
supreme  God  the  creator  of  the  world.  To  explain  creation 
he  was  driven  to  take  refuge  either  in  a  lower  being  called 
the  Demiurge,  or,  with  Valentinus,  in  a  bewildering  phan- 
tasy of  *  aeonSy^  the  lists  of  which,  with  their  '  orders ' 
and  '  pairs,*  their  uncouth  jargon  and  fantastic  progenies, 
are  for  most  people  the  great  difficulty  in  taking  Gnosticism 
seriously.  Their  endless  successions  of  emanations  span 
the  gulf  between  the  absolute  and  the  universe.  Of  neces- 
sity, therefore,  the  body  of  Christ  was  not  real  flesh  and 
blood ;  the  Incarnation  and  the  death  on  the  Cross  were 
conceived  of  as  '  docetic*  The  '  tabernacling '  of  the 
Word  as  '  flesh  *  was  one  of  the  illusions  of  life,  certainly 
not '  the  glory  '  of  God.  For  the  Gnostic,  also,  redemption 
is  a  wider  and  therefore  less  personal  problem  than  the 
sin  of  the  individual.  Human  sin  becomes  one  feature 
only  of  *  the  sin  of  the  world,*  the  mystery  of  pain,  death, 
1  See  Jowett,  Plato,  iii.  pp.  696,  618 ;  Timaeus,  p.  80  ff. 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  35 

and  decay  in  all  their  forms.  As  the  responsibility  for  the 
world  is  thrown  back  upon  the  Demiurge,  the  tendency 
of  Gnosticism  was  towards  the  denial  of  free  will.  In  this 
we  see  the  beginnings  in  Christian  thought  of  an  endless 
debate. 

Gnosticism  stands  hopelessly  condemned  by  its  follies — 
for  by  no  other  name  can  we  dignify  these  metaphysics  of 
wonderland — as  well  as  by  its  attempt  to  introduce  into 
Christianity  what  Dorner  rightly  calls  "  the  intolerable 
distinction  of  an  esoteric  and  exoteric  truth."  It  is  too 
late  to  seek  to  reverse  the  verdict  of  the  Church.  Never- 
theless certain  points  should  be  pleaded  in  mitigation  of 
sentence.  Deeply  as  they  misunderstood  St.  Paul,  the 
Gnostics,  especially  if  Marcion  be  included,  stand  out 
almost  alone  in  the  first  two  centuries  in  their  effort  to 
understand  the  great  Apostle  at  all.  In  Gnosticism,  also, 
we  have  the  beginnings  of  the  critical  spirit,  premature  and 
imperfect,  as  all  such  beginnings  must  necessarily  be,  but  of 
value  as  pointing  the  Church  to  the  need  of  a  more  reasoned 
theology.  For  instance,  it  is  to  the  Gnostics  we  owe  the 
importation  of  such  words  as  ovo-ia,  vTroo-racris,^  and 
6fioov(TLos;  while  the  need  of  meeting  their  wild  conceptions 
led  to  the  development  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  In 
Gnosticism  we  find  the  first  attempts  to  answer  many  of 
the  questions  which  still  occupy  the  attention  of  Christian 
thinkers,  e.g.  the  real  meaning  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ, 
when  we  consider  His  Deity  rather  than  His  humanity. 
Again,  in  Gnosticism  we  have  the  first  crude  representations 
of  the  ideas  of  transubstantiation,  of  purgatory,  and  of 
prayers  for  the  dead.  Disastrous  as  we  may  deem  the 
development  of  these  ideas  to  have  been,  the  historian 
cannot  do  otherwise  than  recognise  their  importance. 

Gnosticism,  in  fact,  sprang  from  the  very  same  source 
as  medieval  Scholasticism,  the  desire  to  reduce  to  logical 
unity  all  the  phenomena  of  religion  and  Ufe.    But  the 

1  Its  use  in  Hebrews  i.  8  is  of  uncert&in  date. 


36    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

sense  of  authority  which  saved  Scholasticism  was  alto- 
gether absent  from  the  more  restless  inquirers  of  the  second 
century.  Yet  by  the  dangers  to  which  they  bore  witness 
the  Gnostics  contributed  to  the  growth  of  that  authority, 
the  outcome  of  which  was  the  Catholic  Church.  Moreover, 
Gnosticism,  in  spite  of  its  docetism,  in  spite  also  of  its 
tendency  to  look  upon  history  as  "  only  the  fluctuating 
outward  expression  of  intellectual  and  moral  ideas,"  ^ 
bore  a  witness  of  its  own  to  the  fact  of  Christ.  The  evidence 
of  these  early  heretics  to  the  hold  of  Jesus  upon  cultivated 
minds  in  the  early  years  of  the  second  century  has  not 
always,  we  think,  been  sufficiently  appreciated  by  Christian 
Apologists.  The  very  fecundity  of  their  systems  shows 
how  profound  an  impression  Jesus  Christ  had  made  on  the 
world.  Even  their  Christology,  as  Domer  has  pointed 
out,  bore  witness  to  a  great  truth.^  The  Ebionites  and 
other  Jewish  Christians  had  allowed  to  Christ  Httle  more 
than  a  glorified  humanity  ;  Valentinus  laid  stress  upon 
His  pre-existence.  For  the  Gnostics  "  Christ's  coming  was 
the  epoch  of  a  great  extrication.  The  sparks  of  divine 
nature  in  all  susceptible  souls  were  to  be  gathered  to 
Christ  as  their  true  centre,  and  to  the  upper  world  as  their 
true  home."  *  "In  their  wildest  flights  we  see  how  the 
Gnostics  realised,  as  the  earlier  followers  of  the  Messiah 
had  failed  to  do,  that  not  merely  mankind,  but  the  whole 
cosmos,  seen  and  unseen,  had  been  affected  by  the  In- 
carnation." * 

Gnosticism,  when  defeated  in  the  Church,  took  refuge 
underground.  For  a  thousand  years  we  find  it  living  a 
subterranean  existence,  ever  and  anon  coming  to  the  sur- 
face in  some  new  heresy,  the  roots  of  which  lie  deep  in  the 
older  Gnosticism,  or  rather  in  the  religions  older  even  than 
Gnosticism  to  which  Gnosticism  was  so  largely  indebted. 

>  Ottley,  Incarnation,  I  p.  178. 

•  Dorner,  op.  cit.  bk.  i.  r,  252. 

»  Rainy,  Ancient  Catholic  Church,  p.  105,  and  Harnack,  Jl.D.  i.  p.  263  (1). 

*  FoakeaJackaoD  in  Cambridge  Theological  Easay$,  p.  484. 


n.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  87 

In  the  third  century  it  appears  in  the  formidable  movement 
known  as  Manichaeism,  so  called  from  Mani  (b.  215),  the 
founder  of  the  sect.  As  might  be  expected  from  its  head- 
quarters being  in  Babylon,  the  doctrines  of  the  sect  were 
in  the  main  akin  to  the  old  Babylonian  nature-religion, 
modified  by  Persian  Dualism,  with  some  admixture, 
especially  in  the  West,  of  the  Gnostic  Christianity  of 
Basilides  and  Marcion.  Owing  partly  to  their  minute  and 
strict  asceticism  and  their  rigid  morality,  partly  also  to 
the  great  number  "  of  the  cultured  who  sought  for  a 
rational  and  yet  to  some  extent  Christian  religion,  and 
who  had  exalted  free  inquiry,  especially  as  regards  the 
Old  Testament,  into  a  battle-flag,"  ^  Manichaeism  obtained 
considerable  influence  in  Christian  circles,  especially  in 
North  Africa,  and  at  one  time  succeeded  even  in  capturing 
Augustine. 

Manichaeism  in  African  Christianity  was  finally  crushed 
out  by  the  persecution  of  the  Vandals.  Elsewhere  the 
Gnostic-Manichaean  movement  still  survived.  Of  few 
heresies  can  the  continuity  of  existence  under  different 
names  be  more  clearly  traced.  In  the  Eastern  Church 
we  find  these  heretics  reappearing  as  Paulicians  from  one 
of  their  two  leaders,  Paul  and  John  of  Samosata.  After 
repeated  persecutions  the  Paulicians  were  driven  to  the 
mountains  of  Armenia,  whence  they  carried  on  their 
struggle  with  the  orthodox  Empire.  Efforts  to  exterminate 
them  were  fruitless,  while  if  left  in  the  East  they  would 
prove  dangerous  allies  of  the  Saracens.  So  in  973  John 
Zimisces  tried  the  experiment  of  toleration,  and  trans- 
ported a  great  colony  to  Thrace,  thus  introducing  their 
doctrine  into  Europe.  Judged  by  its  results,  no  step  was 
more  disastrous.  They  multiplied  rapidly,  and  by  means 
of  the  Crusades,  more  also  through  their  restless  propa- 
ganda, in  the  twelfth  century  they  spread  everywhere  in  the 
West.    Under  the  various  names  of  Bogomils,  Bulgarians, 

1  Harnacjc,  H.D.  iii.  p.  334. 


38    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

or  Bougres — a  name  innocent  and  national  in  origin, 
odious  in  application — Patarins,  Albigensians,  and  Cathari, 
we  may  discern  a  heresy  almost  as  united  and  widespread 
as  the  Catholic  faith. 

The  Cathari  or  '  Puritans  '  owed  their  name  to  their  high 
morality.  There  was,  in  fact,  nothing  in  the  joyless 
Manichaean  creed  to  attract  the  sensual.  Their  tenets 
were  the  familiar  positions  of  Gnosticism.  As  their  ideal 
of  spiritual  growth  lay  in  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  the 
propagation  of  life  in  any  form  was  the  work  of  the  devil. 
So  they  refused  to  eat  meat,  eggs,  milk — everything,  in  fact, 
which  resulted  from  the  sexual  passion,  with  the  exception 
of  fish,  for  which  their  rude  science  suggested  a  different 
origin.  Their  fasts  were  endless  :  three  days  in  each  week, 
three  periods  of  forty  days  in  each  year.  Their  strict 
vegetarianism  had,  however,  other  roots  than  their  hatred 
of  generation.  We  have  records  of  Cathari  who  chose 
death  rather  than  kill  a  fowl ;  to  them  it  was  the  spirit 
of  a  fallen  brother  passing  through  another  probation. 
But  their  tenderness  was  confined  to  animals.  They  tor- 
tured themselves  by  swallowing  pounded  glass  or  poisonous 
potions,  while  suicide  was  held  up  as  the  crowning  virtue 
of  the  '  perfected.' 

We  are  not  writing  the  history  of  heresy,  but  of  Christian 
thought.  We  need  not,  therefore,  inquire  into  the  causes 
chiefly  to  be  found  in  the  corruption  of  the  Church,  which 
led  this  extravagant  hybrid  of  purity  and  falsehood  to 
threaten  for  a  while  the  very  existence  of  Christianity. 
Nor  need  we  detail  the  steps  by  which  this  age-long  heresy 
was  finally  crushed  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  the  crusade 
of  Innocent  in.  against  the  Albigensians,  most  of  all  by 
St.  Francis  pointing  out  the  more  excellent  way  of  sun- 
shine and  love.  But  one  reflection  upon  this  remarkable 
heresy  is  very  pertinent  to  our  purpose. 

We  notice  the  Manichaean  doctrine,  emphasised  by  the 
Cathari,  of  a  twofold  morality,  a  higher  standard  for  the 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  89 

small  body  of  the  *  Elect  *  or  '  perfected,'  a  lower  for  the 
general  mass.  Orthodox  Christianity  reproduced,  almost 
unchallenged,  the  same  distinction ;  it  formed,  in  fact,  the 
fundamental  feature  of  its  ethical  systems,  the  chief  factor 
in  its  organisation.  It  is  not  without  significance  that 
Monasticism  and  Manichaeism — including  in  this  title 
the  long  heresy  from  the  Gnostics  to  the  Cathari — rose 
and  perished  together.  Both  recognised  and  understood 
*'  the  imperious  desire  for  immolation  which  lies  in  the 
depth  of  every  soul."  ^  Both  took  as  their  foundation  the 
conception  of  a  double  ideal — the  higher  reserved  for  the 
*  spiritual '  or  '  religious  ' — instead  of  a  single  ideal  of  life, 
attainable  by  all.  For  a  thousand  years  the  effect  of  this 
distinction  was  apparent  in  forms  of  thought  and  ideals  of 
life  too  obvious  to  need  enumeration. 


IV 

In  the  long  struggle  between  Gnosticism  and  the  faith 
of  Jesus  the  theological  student  will  discern  more  than 
the  manifestation  of  difference.  He  will  detect  the  growth 
of  points  of  contact  between  a  regenerated  Hellenism  and 
Christianity.  It  was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  attempts 
should  be  made  to  bring  about  a  closer  understanding. 
The  Church  no  longer  boasted  that  *  not  many  wise  men 
after  the  flesh '  were  called  ;  nor  could  Celsus  complain 
with  justice  that  Christianity  was  confined  to  the  '  ignorant, 
unintelligent,  and  uneducated.'  Hence,  as  Origen  tells  us, 
*  When  men,  not  only  the  labouring  and  serving  classes, 
but  also  many  from  the  cultured  classes  of  Greece,  came 
to  see  something  honourable  in  Christianity  .  .  .  scholars 
endeavoured  to  penetrate  deeper  into  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity.' To  this  we  owe  the  rise  of  "  Apologies,"  or 
philosophic  defences  of  Christianity  for  the  sake  of  out-  ^ 
siders. 

1  Sabatier,  St.  Francis  (Eng.  Tr.),  p.  73. 


40    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [cH. 

The  Apologists,  generally  speaking,  are  chiefly  concerned 
with  a  defence  of  Christianity  against  the  charges  brought 
against  it  by  political  opponents.  They  appeal  against  the 
prevailing  intolerance,  misunderstanding,  and  persecution. 
But  in  seeking  to  change  the  attitude  of  the  government 
they  are  driven  to  present  Christianity  in  terms  that  could 
be  understood — on  the  lines,  that  is,  of  natural  theology 
and  of  the  older  schools  of  thought.  Hence  the  emphasis 
by  the  Apologists  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos  and  its 
relations  to  the  cosmos,  and  the  attempt  in  diverse  ways 
to  date  back  Christianity  as  an  actual  fact  in  the  world  to 
the  time  before  the  beginning  of  history.  To  Justin  Martyr, 
for  instance,  in  his  Apology,  written  about  150,  the  Incarna- 
tion is  but  the  final  and  complete  manifestation  of  the 
Logos,  the  presence  of  which  in  the  world  he  recognises 
wherever  there  has  been  goodness  or  wisdom.  Christianity 
is  no  break  in  continuity,  no  light  that  comes  per  saltum, 
but  the  fulfilment  in  Christ  Jesus  of  all  reason,  religion, 
and  prediction.  Justin  identifies  Christ  with  the  Divine 
Wisdom  manifested,  though  sporadically,  in  all  ages  and 
among  all  peoples.  He  is  the  teacher  of  Socrates  as  well 
as  of  Abraham ;  of  Orpheus  and  of  Moses.  '  We  have 
been  taught,'  he  writes,  '  that  Christ  is  the  first-bom  of 
God,  and  we  have  declared  that  He  is  the  Word  of  whom 
every  race  of  men  were  partakers.  Those  who  have  lived 
with  reason  (//era  \6yov)  are  Christians,  even  though  they 
have  been  thought  Atheists,  as  among  the  Greeks  Socrates 
and  Herachtus,  and  men  like  them.*  But  the  '  teacher 
whom  the  Christians  followed  '  was  '  reason  itself  ;  it  was 
visible  and  appeared  bodily  in  Him.* 

For  Gentile  idolatry  the  Apologists  have  nothing  but 
scorn  ;  though  at  the  same  time  they  point  to  the  eternal 
elements  in  Gentile  philosophy  and  Gentile  religion.  Pre- 
Christian  philosophies,  save  the  Epicurean,  though  sadly 
marred  by  the  rule  of  '  demons,'  could  thus  claim  kinship 
with  Christianity  by  reason  of  '  the  seed  of  the  Logos  * 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  41 

implanted  in  them.  No  doubt  this  acknowledgment  of 
identity  of  content  is  purchased  sometimes  by  a  lack  of 
the  due  emphasis  on  the  special  and  significant  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  of  sin,  of  the 
Atonement,  of  natural  immortality,  and  the  like.  Justin, 
for  instance,  at  times  seems  to  echo  Plato  rather  than  Paul. 
But  "Apologies"  never  reveal  the  deeper  man  ;  the  author 
is  always  thinking  of  his  opponent.  Yet  the  ultimate 
effect  of  the  Apologist  was  to  lift  Christianity  from  being 
the  religion  of  a  sect  founded  upon  enthusiasm  into  a 
world-religion  that  appealed  to  the  universal  conscience 
and  reason.  Minucius  Felix,  the  last  of  the  group,  reminds 
us  of  our  own  Bishop  Butler,  when  he  claims  that  every 
man  who  possesses  reason  and  speech  will  find  Christian 
truth  in  his  own  constitution,  and  in  the  rational  order  of 
the  world. 

The  close  approach  of  Christianity  and  Greek  philosophy 
is  nowhere  better  seen  than  in  two  writers  who  at  first  sight 
appear  to  demonstrate  the  opposite.  The  Apologist  Tatian's 
Oratio  ad  Graecos  is  a  violent  polemic  against  all  Greek 
philosophers  ;  Celsus,  on  the  contrary,  is  equally  violent 
against  Christianity.  But  while  Tatian,  and  Clement  after 
him,  maintained  that  the  philosophers  have  borrowed  from 
and  distorted  the  teaching  of  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
Celsus  similarly  derives  the  teachings  of  Jesus  from  the 
philosophers.  Both  alike,  though  with  different  stress, 
would  approve  the  memorable  sentence  ascribed  by 
Clement  to  the  Neoplatonist  Numenius  :  '  What  is  Plato 
but  Moses  speaking  in  the  language  of  Athens  ?  '  Such 
charges  of  plagiarism  were  common,  and  witness  to  grow- 
ing sympathy. 

Or,  again,  we  may  note  the  similarity  in  certain  points 
of  all  the  schools  of  thought  of  the  second  and  third  cen- 
turies, whether  called  Gnostic,  Christian,  or  Neoplatonic. 
All  alike  fall  back  upon  an  abstract  notion  of  God  as  the 
transcendent  Absolute.    All  need  a  mediator  between  this 


42    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

Absolute  and  the  world,  and,  according  to  their  outlook, 
find  the  bridge  over  the  chasm,  in  the  Logos,  a  system  of 
'aeons,'  of  'powers'  (Philo),  or  of  'demons.'  Further,  as 
all  of  them,  not  excepting  the  orthodox,  tend  to  find  the 
secret  of  evil  in  matter — some  make  the  two  one — all  lay 
emphasis  upon  self-discipline  and  renunciation  as  the  secret 
of  the  higher  vision. 

In  their  belief  in  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  reason 
Apologists  and  Gnostics  are  one.  But  while  the  Gnostics 
sought  to  transform  Christianity  into  a  religion  after  their 
own  heart,  the  Apologists  were  loyal  to  the  traditional 
Christianity,  except  in  so  far  as  their  silence  on  certain 
matters  may  be  deemed  disloyalty.  The  Apologists  were 
conservative ;  they  accepted  the  historical  elements  of 
Christianity,  and  tried  to  make  them  intelligible.  To 
Theophilus,  for  instance,  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis  con- 
tain the  sum  of  all  Christian  knowledge ;  while  all  the 
Apologists  look  upon  the  Old  Testament  as  the  full  revela- 
tion of  truth,  completely  identical  with  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  The  Gnostics,  on  the  contrary,  dealt  with  the 
materials  so  as  best  to  fit  them  in  with  certain  a  priori 
philosophical  speculations.  To  the  one  Christianity  was  a 
complete  revelation  which  brought  assurance  in  proportion 
as  it  was  pondered  ;  to  the  other  it  was  part  of  a  process 
which  led  by  diverse  ways  to  the  Absolute. 

One  difference  between  the  Apologists  and  the  Greek 
philosophers  is  conspicuous  and  vital.  When  Celsus 
sneered  at  Christianity  as  fit  only  for  fullers  and  bakers, 
he  expressed  the  exclusiveness  of  all  Hellenism.  Stoicism, 
for  instance,  for  all  its  ideals  of  moral  freedom,  left  the 
mass  of  mankind  hopelessly  grovelling  in  filth  and  dark- 
ness. The  steep  upward  road  is  only  for  the  few.  But 
the  Apologists  share  the  universalism  of  the  Gospel  in  their 
claim  that  Christianity  can  be  grasped  by  all,  and  can  lift 
even  women  and  uneducated  men  into  saints  and  sages. 

If  we  turn  to  the  positive  contents  of  the  Apologists  we 


11.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  43 

note  the  development,  especially  in  Justin,  of  a  Platonic 
rather  than  a  Johannine  conception  of  the  Logos  as  the 
organ  of  divine  revelation.  Many  of  the  activities  in 
human  history  which  a  more  developed  theology  attributed 
to  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Justin  attributes  to  the 
Logos,  who  is  not  only  the  creative  reason  of  God,  but 
His  revealing  Word  ever  hovering  between  God  and  the 
world.  Thus  both  in  the  Apologists  and  Alexandrians 
there  is  little  real  place  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  spite  of  their 
orthodox  tribute  to  His  claims.^  In  one  aspect  the  Logos 
is  the  thought  of  the  world  within  the  mind  of  the  '  increate  ' 
God,  which  the  act  of  creation — a  voluntary  energy,  not, 
as  with  the  Gnostics,  a  physical  necessity — projects  from 
God,  thus  giving  to  the  Logos  a  separate  hypostasis.  From 
this  begetting  arises  the  subordination  of  the  Logos,  and 
the  realisation  in  creation  of  the  idea  of  the  world.  The 
exaggerated  emphasis  which  all  the  Apologists  lay  upon 
the  monotheistic  explanation  of  the  world  as  the  chief  part 
of  Christian  doctrine  was  as  much  due  to  the  pressure  of 
Greek  thought  as  to  the  conflict  with  surrounding  poly- 
theism. In  all  early  Christian  writers,  as  in  the  official 
creeds,  the  doctrine  of  God  as  creator  is  the  first  and  most 
important  article  of  the  Christian  faith. 

As  regards  the  Atonement,  the  Apologists  say  little  or 
nothing,  whatever  may  have  been  their  personal  views. 
Here  again  we  see  the  influence  of  Hellenism.  In  the 
teaching  of  the  schools  it  is  always '  gnosis '  as  such  that  leads 
to  salvation.  So  with  the  Apologists.  It  is  as  the  divine 
teacher  that  Christ  brings  '  salvation,'  and  faith  is  the  con- 
viction of  the  truth  of  His  teaching.  '  Salvation '  is  the 
consequent  gift  of  eternal  life  ;  for  most  of  the  Apologists 
— in  this  departing  from  Plato — argue  against  the  con- 
ception of  the  natural  immortality  of  the  soul.  The 
neglect  by  the  Apologists  of  the  essential  factor   of   sin 

1  Bigg,  G.P.A.  p.  171,  thinks  diflferently.  But  1  am  not  convinced  by  Lis 
argument. 


44    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

is  due  to  their  looking  upon  sin  as  the  result  of  bondage  to 
the  *  demons  '  ;  from  which  bondage  man  can  be  delivered 
by  the  exercise  of  his  own  will.  In  this  last  the  Apologists 
will  have  no  parley  with  Stoic  fatalism,  as  represented,  for 
instance,  by  Marcus  Aurelius. 


Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Origen  have  often  been  classi- 
fied with  the  Apologists.  But  this  is  scarcely  to  do  justice 
to  these  great  scholars  and  true  saints.  The  Apologists 
were  on  the  defensive ;  Clement  and  Origen  had  a  far 
larger  design.  They  were  the  first  of  a  succession  of  writers, 
learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  Greece,  and  enthusiastic  for 
its  philosophy,  but  yet  loyal  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  who 
tried  to  incorporate  into  the  new  faith  all  that  was  best  in 
the  culture  of  the  Hellenic  world,  especially  in  the  Platonic 
and  Stoic  philosophers.  '  The  way  of  truth,'  Clement  said, 
*  is  one.  But  into  it  as  into  a  perennial  river  streams  flow 
from  all  sides.' 

The  permanent  value  of  their  work  will  be  differently 
Judged  according  to  the  student's  bias  towards  the  Platonic 
or  Aristotelian  philosophy,  or  his  behef  in  the  greater  value 
of  an  institutional  Church.  But  of  the  greatness  of  their 
attempt  there  can  be  no  question.  To  give  an  historical 
parallel :  Clement  and  Origen  attempted,  with  a  wonderful 
measure  of  success,  to  do  for  the  Christianity  of  the  third 
century  what  Thomas  Aquinas  and  the  great  Schoolmen 
accompHshed  for  the  medieval  Church,  what  Erasmus  and 
the  Humanists  of  the  Renaissance  failed  to  do  for  the 
Church  of  the  Reformation,  what  many  of  the  deepest 
thinkers  and  most  loyal  Christians  of  to-day  see  must  be 
done  for  the  Church  of  the  twentieth  century.  Owing  to 
the  success  of  the  reactionaries  at  Trent  and  elsewhere, 
the  modem  world  of  thought  lies  outside  the  Church  rather 
than  within ;    at  best  on  parallel  lines ;    rarely  under  its 


n.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  46 

influence ;  never  under  its  control.  The  success  of 
Clement  and  Aquinas  thus  seems  the  greater  by  contrast 
with  the  disastrous  failure  at  the  Reformation,  and  by 
the  ever-growing  necessity,  in  the  world  of  thought  to-day, 
for  a  new  reconciliation  of  Christianity  and  culture.  In 
many  respects,  especially  if  we  remember  the  times  in 
which  it  was  done,  the  work  of  Clement  is  the  boldest 
undertaking  of  the  sort  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 
*'  There  is  no  one  whose  vision  of  what  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  intended  to  do  for  mankind  was  so  full  or  so 
true."  1 

The  boldness  of  Clement  is  seen  in  his  refusal  to  sur- 
render the  title  '  Gnostic  '  to  the  heretics.  He  claims  that 
the  perfect  Christian  must  be  a  '  Gnostic,'  for  *  gnosis ' 
is  the  purification  of  the  ruling  faculty  of  the  soul.  The 
*  achievements  of  the  Gnostic  faculty  '  are  '  to  know  what 
is  right,  to  do  what  is  right,  and  to  help  others  to  do  it.' 
But  the  difference  between  the  school  of  Clement  and 
Origen  and  the  Gnostics  must  not  be  overlooked.  Their 
aims  were  similar,  almost  identical — to  bring  Christianity 
into  touch  with  the  thought  of  the  times ;  to  combine 
in  one  creed  the  immanence  and  transcendence  of  God, 
definite  Christian  conditions,  and  a  free  outlook  upon  the 
experience  of  the  world.  But  their  methods  were  opposite. 
The  attempt  of  the  Gnostics  was  premature.  Christianity 
and  Greek  philosophy  were  not  yet  in  sufficient  sympathy. 
In  consequence  the  Gnostics  dealt  with  the  materials  of  the 
Christian  faith  with  a  destructive  freedom  which  witnessed 
to  the  uncertain  nature  of  Christian  tradition  and  dogma. 
But  between  their  effort  and  that  of  Clement,  largely  in 
consequence  of  the  Gnostic  heresies  themselves,  Christian 
J  tradition  had  become  sacred.  Christian  Scriptures  and 
dogma  more  definite.  To  this  tradition  and  dogma 
Clement  and  his  school  were  thoroughly  loyal,  though 
anxious  to  present  both  in  philosophic  form.    The  Gnostics 

1  Hort,  Antt-Nictnt  Fathers^  p.  93. 


46    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

had  allowed  their  philosophy  to  overmaster  their  faith  ; 
Clement  and  Origen  made  it  subservient.  With  the  latter, 
as  with  Anselm  of  Aosta,  faith .  is  the  foundation,  know- 
ledge the  superstructure.  Faith  is  the  summary  knowledge 
of  urgent  truths,  knowledge  a  sure  demonstration  of 
what  has  been  received  through  faith.  Knowledge  not 
based  on  faith  is  neither  stable  nor  effective ;  though,  on 
the  other  hand,  'nothing  is  to  be  believed  which  is  un- 
worthy of  God,'  that  is,  which  is  contrary  to  reason. 

Though  Clement  ^  may  have  been  by  birth  as  well  as 
by  training  an  Athenian,  it  is  his  connection  with  the 
Christian  catechetical  school  at  Alexandria,  founded  a 
few  years  previously  by  Pantaenus,  that  gives  him  his 
special  claim.  No  place  could  have  been  for  Clement  a 
more  suitable  sphere  of  work.  Alexandria,  the  second 
city  in  the  world,  was  the  meeting-place  of  East  and  West. 
It  was  the  home  of  three  great  tendencies,  which  then, 
as  now,  were  potent  in  shaping  the  thoughts  of  men : 
Egyptian  symbolism  with  its  esoteric  beliefs  and  ancient 
priesthood,  Jewish  monotheism,  and  Greek  science,  philo- 
sophy and  culture.  Among  its  restless  crowds,  and  in  its 
famous  university,  all  that  was  plausible  in  speculation, 
and  much  that  was  foolish,  found  disciples  and  expositors. 
In  a  city  of  so  many  religions  thought  was  free.  No 
dominant  creed  or  ritual  hindered  the  most  critical  inquiry  ; 
while  the  spectacle  of  the  many  altars  led  the  thoughtful 
to  inquire  as  to  the  one  *  unknown  God '  whom  all  alike 
'  ignorantly  worshipped.*  The  value,  amid  such  surround- 
ings, of  the  Christian  school  was  incalculable.  Its  method 
was  determined  by  the  varied  needs  of  the  people — cate- 
chumens or  candidates  for  orders, — to  whom  it  appealed, 
as  well  as  by  the  non-ecclesiastical  character  of  its  organi- 
sation. In  the  higher  classes,  aft^r  the  discipline  of 
mathematics  and  sciences,  the  Greek  systems  of  philosophy, 
save  only  the  *  godless  Epicureans,'  and  the  Old  Testament 
1  Born  about  150.    He  was  still  living  in  211,  but  not  in  216. 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  47 

Scriptures  were  studied  side  by  side  as  propaedeutic  to 
higher  knowledge.  The  final  destruction  of  this  school  in 
the  fourth  century,  in  the  struggle  between  Theophilus  of 
Alexandria  and  the  Egyptian  monks,  was  one  of  the 
many  disasters  which  led  to  the  ruin  of  the  Egyptian 
Church. 

In  his  pre-Christian  days  Clement  had  investigated  not 
only  Judaism,  but  the  creeds  of  paganism.  To  the  in- 
fluence of  the  '  mysteries  *  we  may  trace  his  manifest 
tendency  to  treat  Christianity  as  itself  a  '  mystery,'  ^  the 
initiation  into  a  higher  '  gnosis.'  His  learning,  diffuse 
and  uncritical,  was  as  vague  and  unsystematic  as  his 
philosophy  ;  altogether  in  keeping  in  its  '  studied  dis- 
order '  with  the  title  which  he  gave  to  one  of  his  most 
important  works,  StromateiSj  or  Clothes-bags  of  Gnostic 
Notes  on  the  True  Philosophy.  But  his  sympathies  are 
wide  and  generous.  He  refuses  to  speak  harshly  even  of 
those  '  orthodoxasts '  who  would  reduce  Christianity  to 
*  faith  only,  bare  faith,'  who  claim  '  that  philosophy  comes 
of  evil,  and  was  introduced  into  life  for  the  ruin  of  men.' 
But  while  he  thus  fights  the  battle  of  education  within  the 
Church,  he  differs  from  many  Christian  thinkers,  both  in 
ancient  and  modern  times,  by  his  insistence,  especially 
in  his  practical  work  called  the  Pedagogue  or  '  Tutor ^^ 
upon  Christian  life  and  experience  in  all  their  fulness  as 
the  great  corrective  of  all  theories,  and  the  outcome  of  all 
true  '  gnosis.'  He  maintains  that  purity  is  the  condition 
of  insight :  *  conduct  follows  knowledge  as  surely  as  the 
shadow  the  body.'  With  Origen,  too,  conduct  is  all  im- 
portant ;  with  all  his  abstract  thinking  he  is  ever  showing 
us  the  effect  of  action.  In  fact,  with  both  Origen  and 
Clement,  '  Faith  means  Belief  determining  Action  and 
leading  up  through  Obedience  to  Love.'  ^ 

1  See  on  this  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  App.  B. 

2  Bigg,  C.P.A.  p.  209  n.  As  an  illustration  we  note  that  Pantaenus,  their 
master,  in  his  old  age  had  set  off  as  a  missionary  to  India. 


48    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

Clement  boldly  asserts  the  unity  of  all  knowledge  in 
Christ.  '  Just  as  every  family  goes  back  to  the  creator, 
so  does  the  teaching  of  all  good  things  go  back  to  the  Lord  *  ; 
in  whom  alone  we  find  the  '  sovereign  unassailable  Faith/ 
and  from  whom  comes  the  inevitable  impulse  of  the  human 
mind  to  philosophy.  But  all  such  philosophy  is  only 
'  the  prelimmary  training  towards  the  perfection  that 
comes  by  Christ.'  For  the  Greeks  who  lived  '  before  the 
advent  of  the  Lord,  philosophy  was  necessary  for  righteous- 
ness '  ;  *  Philosophy  was  the  "  schoolmaster  "  for  the 
Greek  world,  as  the  Law  was  for  the  Hebrews,  *'  to  bring 
them  to  Christ" ' ;  for  the  Greeks  '  it  was  a  sort  of  Covenant 
of  their  own,'  communicated  to  them  possibly  by  angelic 
mediation  ;  though  necessary  no  longer,  '  it  is  still  pro- 
fitable for  piety.'  Thus  the  whole  story  of  the  world — 
cosmology,  psychology,  and  ethics  alike — is  centred  in 
the  benevolent  action  of  the  Logos,  whose  Incarnation 
is  the  final  manifestation  of  truth  and  goodness ;  for 
whose  Advent  the  world  has  been  prepared  by  trial  and 
discipline. 

Clement's  pupil  and  successor,  Origen  (Origenes  Adaman- 
tius),  who  died  at  Tyre  in  253,  broken  with  his  sufferings 
in  the  Decian  persecution,  completed — so  far,  that  is,  as 
such  a  movement  can  ever  be  said  to  be  completed — the 
work  that  Clement  had  begun.  There  is  no  need  to  go 
over  the  theories  of  Origen  in  detail,  for  the  chief  features 
of  his  teaching  are  identical  with  those  of  Clement.  But, 
as  is  natural  with  a  successor,  the  theories  are  more  com- 
pletely thought  out,  there  is  greater  reserve  over  doubtful 
points,  while  the  outlines  of  the  whole  are  more  clearly, 
sometimes  more  narrowly,  presented,  always,  too,  without 
signs  of  haste  or  heat.  With  more  discrimination  than 
Clement,  he  introduced  everything  worth  knowing  into  the 
sphere  of  theology,  completely  welding  together  Christianity 
and  the  culture  and  science  of  the  age.  That  in  this  respect 
"  orthodox  theology  of  all  creeds  has  never  advanced  beyond 


u.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  49 

the  circle  mapped  out  by  his  mind "  ^  is  a  wonderful 
testimony  to  his  success. 

With  greater  clearness  and  more  exegetical  skill  than 
Clement,  Origen  sets  out  the  assumption  that  there  is  an 
esoteric  form  of  Christianity,  *  mystical  economies  made 
known  by  Holy  Scripture/  which,  however,  must  be 
handled    with   due    '  reserve.'     The   deciphering   of   this 

*  pneumatic  '  or  *  spiritual  Christianity '  is  the  task  of 
theology,  necessary  indeed  if  the  Bible  is  to  be  commended 
to  the  Greek  mind.  All  Scripture  has  in  reality  a  three- 
fold sense,  a  pneumatic,  psychic,  and  '  somatic,'  correspond- 
ing to  the  elements  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit  which  we  find 
in  the  cosmos.     The  simple  man  is  edified  by  means  of  the 

*  flesh '  of  the  Bible,  the  more  advanced  by  means  of  its 

*  soul,'  while  for  the  perfected  there  is  its  pneumatic  inter- 
pretation. The  somatic  or  historical  sense,  the  lowest 
rungs  in  the  ladder,  must  first  be  ascertained  before  we  can 
climb  to  the  higher.  In  some  passages,  it  is  true,  the  literal 
sense  is  absurd  and  impossible,  as  in  the  story  of  the  Fall. 
Such  '  stumbling-blocks  '  have  been  deliberately  introduced 
that  we  may  not  be  drawn  away  from  the  spiritual  '  by  the 
obvious.'  By  stripping  off  '  the  covering '  of  history  we 
pass  to  the  psychic  or  moral  sense.  In  Joshua,  for  instance, 
the  kings  are  really  the  '  names  of  vices.'  The  final  stage 
in  this  "  Biblical  Alchemy,"  as  Dr.  Bigg  calls  it,  is  the 
pneumatic  sense.  He  who  has  attained  this  has  become 
inwardly  united  with  God's  Logos,  and  from  this  union 
obtains  all  that  he  requires. 

In  this  connection  one  matter  of  historical  importance 
must  not  be  overlooked.  For  the  '  spiritual  Church  '  there 
is  an  '  eternal  Gospel,'  related  to  the  written  one  as  the 
letter  is  to  the  law,  as  the  shadow  to  the  substance.  This 
eternal  Gospel  is  the  full  revelation  of  God's  highest  inten- 


1  Harnack,  H.D.  ii.  p.  334.    Cf.  Westcott,  History  of  Religious  ThoughJt 
in  the  West,  pp.  '^"'    "'"  •'  "' "       '  ^  ~      -  .  _ 

ligion,  ii.  p.  280 


in  the  West,  pp.  248,  252  ;  Pfleiderer,  Philosophy  and  Development  of  Re- 
"  ■       ••     ).  280 


60    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [CH. 

tions,  and  is  hidden  in  the  Holy  Scripture,  waiting  for 
interpretation  by  the  *  mystic  sense.'  The  later  develop- 
ment of  this  doctrine  in  the  Middle  Ages  by  Joachim  di 
Fiori  and  the  Spiritual  Franciscans  can  thus  be  traced  back 
to  Origen. 

As  regards  the  will,  Clement  is  definite  and  clear.  He 
refuses  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  fatalistic  tendencies 
of  Gnosticism  and  Pantheism.  With  him  will  is  an  essential 
feature  in  human  nature,  and  as  such  is  always  free.  The 
will  can  reject  the  light ;  hence  the  value  of  the  discipline 
by  means  of  which  the  unbelieving  will  is  led  to  surrender 
to  the  light.  The  decision  from  moment  to  moment  rests 
with  us,  but  not  the  end.  But  Origen,  while  he  claims 
that  freedom  is  the  mark  of  the  created  spirit,  in  reality 
denies  freedom,  or  rather  makes  it  to  be  but  temporal. 
For  in  its  ultimate  analysis  evil  is  '  unreal,'  '  non-existent,' 
certainly  not '  eternal ' — in  the  assertion  of  this  lies  Origen's 
optimism  or  heresy — inasmuch  as  it  is  the  work  of  ourselves 
and  not  of  God.  In  the  end,  therefore,  the  spirit  must 
return  to  that  which  is  good  ;  freedom  is  merely  the  appear- 
ance under  which  we  see  the  necessity  of  the  created  spirit 
developing  itself  in  time  on  the  lines  of  its  indestructible 
spirituality.  For  souls  not  purified  before  death  Origen 
and  Clement  provide  the  cleansing  flames  of  purgatory. 
*  Even  Peter  and  Paul  must  come  into  that  fire,'  and  pass 
from  sphere  to  sphere,  ever  gaining  increase  of  illumination 
and  strength.  But  the  gross  conceptions  of  a  later  age  are 
altogether  lacking,  for  the  purifying  fire  consists  in  the 
torments  of  conscience,  and  is  kindled  by  the  sinner  him- 
self. '  The  soul,  when  it  has  collected  unto  itself  an 
abundance  of  sins,  glows  into  punishment  and  bursts  into 
penal  fire.'  For  some  spirits,  as  compared  with  their  pre- 
existent  condition,  the  present  life  is  a  prison-house  of 
correction,  though  for  others  it  may  be  a  place  of  relief. 
But  the  eschatology  of  the  Alexandrians,  in  spite  of  con- 
stant appeals  to  texts  of  Scripture,  is  largely  Platonic, 


il]  the  influence  of  HELLAS  61 

one  chief  source  being  the  Gorgias.^  Nevertheless,  in 
Origen's  doctrine  of  purgatory  the  churches  of  the  East 
and  West  find  the  germs  of  much  later  teaching,  in  the 
main  identical,  though  the  Greeks,  it  is  true,  have  no  word 
for  purgatory.2  The  refusal  of  both  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Churches  to  admit  Origen's  contention,  that  purgatory 
admits  of  repentance  or  probation,  would  appear  to  be 
their  chief  difference  from  the  Alexandrian  Father. 

As  regards  the  Eucharist,  the  Alexandrians  held  a  spiri- 
tual real  Presence  of  Christ,  of  which  the  bread  and  the  wine 
were  symbols.  The  theory  now  called  Transubstantiation 
was  alien  to  their  genius  ;  necessarily  so,  for,  as  Dr.  Bigg 
rightly  points  out,  "  Transubstantiation  rests  upon  Aristo- 
telian or  Stoic  Realism,  and  is  diametrically  opposed  to 
Platonism."  ^ 

The  chief  defect  of  the  Alexandrian  position  is  the  defi- 
ciency, so  characteristically  Greek,  in  the  idea  of  the  divine 
holiness.  From  this  follows  the  absence  of  any  adequate 
doctrine  of  sin.  There  is  no  sufficient  explanation  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  condition  in  which  the  mass  of  man- 
kind, as  distinct  from  the  few  enlightened  philosophers, 
find  themselves.  Origen  compares  evil  to  the  '  chips  and 
similar  rubbish  which  a  carpenter  leaves  in  executing  the 
plan  of  a  building,'  while  his  optimistic  doctrine  of  its 
'  unreality  '  lands  him  in  universalism.  For  any  further 
explanation  of  evil  he  falls  back  upon  his  conception  of 
pre-existence.  Creation  is  eternal ;  the  '  spirits '  that 
sinned  in  a  higher  world  have  become  '  souls  '  in  this  lower 
scene  of  discipline.  He  fails  to  see  that  this  explanation 
but  pushes  the  problem  one  step  farther  back.  In  conse- 
quence, he  only  deals  slightly  with  the  Atonement,  while 
redemption  is  presented  in  terms  of  illumination  or  escape 
rather  than  grace.     The  way  of  fight  is  not  the  way  of  the 

1  Bigg,  C.P.A.  pp.  112.  113  n.  4,  229-230;  Jowett,  Plato,  ii.  p.  297  flF. 
«  Bigg,  C.P.A.  pp.  295  w.,  298  n. 
»  Ibid.  p.  219  n.     Cf.  infra,  p.  236  f. 


52    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Cross — *  to  know  Christ  crucified,'  writes  Origen,  *  is  the 
knowledge  of  babes ' — but  *  the  turning  inwardly  to  one- 
self, restoring  one's  own  nature,  and  thus  practising  righ- 
teousness.' Owing  to  their  fundamental  premise  of  the 
unchangeableness  of  the  Absolute,  forgiveness  is  always  a 
difficult  notion  for  the  Alexandrians,  and  is  by  them,  as  a 
rule,  associated  with  the  *  washing  '  of  Baptism.  We  ascend 
to  God  through  contemplation  rather  than  by  reconciliation; 
in  fact,  we  might  say  that  to  the  illuminated,  '  pneumatic,' 
or  '  Gnostic  '  Christian  the  Saviour  is  of  little  importance 
save  as  a  teacher.  He  is  *  the  light  that  lighteth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world.' 

Origen's  doctrine  of  Atonement  is  further  limited  by  the 
prevalent  notion  of  the  tyranny  of  the  demons.  While  he 
acknowledges  that  all  sins  require  expiation,  and  even 
attributes  to  the  death  of  Christ  a  vicarious  significance, 
he  yet  fatally  warped  Soteriology  for  a  thousand  years  by 
his  conception  of  the  Atonement  as  a  ransom  paid  to  the 
devil,  who  was,  however,  cheated  of  his  price  by  the 
Resurrection,  this  last  a  detail  first  found  among  the 
Gnostic  Basilidians. 

This  doctrine  of  Origen — with  whom,  however,  it  is  not 
original,  for  it  is  found  in  Irenaeus — was  taken  up  and 
developed  by  Gregory  of  Nyssa  (332-395).  Gregory's 
emphasis  on  the  '  deceit,'  '  fraud,  and  surprise  '  with  which 
the  devil  was  thus  cheated  of  his  prey  accentuates  the 
worst  features  in  Origen's  theory,  and  is  a  curious  com- 
mentary on  the  ethical  conceptions  of  his  age.  Gregory 
Nazianzen  (330-389),  it  is  true,  indignantly  asks  :  '  To  whom 
was  this  ransom  paid,  and  for  what  cause  ?  If  to  the  devil, 
fie  upon  the  shameful  thought.'  But  closer  examination 
shows  that  he  substitutes  for  the  deception  of  the  devil  by 
God  self-deception  in  the  Evil  One,  *  inasmuch  as  he  was 
taken  in  by  God's  assumption  of  our  nature.'  Even 
Augustine,  in  spite  of  his  lifting  the  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment to  a  higher  plane  by  the  stress  that  he  laid  upon  sin, 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  63 

and  by  his  noble  conception  of  reconciliation  by  a  mediator, 
in  spite  also  of  his  manifest  desire  to  avoid  any  antagonism 
in  the  relations  of  Father  and  Son,  commits  himself  to  this 
repulsive  theory,  and  calls  the  Cross  a  *  mouse-trap.'  The 
claims  of  the  devil  to  an  equivalent  he  regards  as  most 
just,  though  forfeited  by  his  inflicting  death  upon  One 
who  was  sinless.  Finally,  Gregory  the  Great  completed 
this  vulgarisation  by  speaking  of  the  devil  as  captured  on 
the  hook  of  the  Incarnation  by  the  '  bait '  of  the  body  of 
Christ. 

That  a  theory  with  such  huckstering  conceptions  of 
God  could  be  accepted  by  the  Church  for  nearly  a  thousand 
years  as  the  explanation,  if  only  in  part,  of  the  Cross,  must 
always  seem  extraordinary  to  the  modem  mind.  Never- 
theless, with  but  few  protests  it  endured  until  overthrown 
by  Anselm.  Neither  Irenaeus,  nor  Origen,  nor  any  of  the 
Fathers  seem  to  have  been  conscious  of  the  "  residuary 
dualism,"  a  legacy  of  Gnosticism,  which  underlay  the  belief.^ 
In  Athanasius's  profound  De  Incarnatione,  Satan,  it  is  true, 
retires  into  the  background.  The  keynote  is  the  goodness 
of  God.  The  Apologists  had  insisted  on  the  teaching  of 
Christ  as  the  real  revelation  of  the  Godhead.  Athanasius, 
with  truer  insight,  lays  the  stress  upon  His  Person.  His 
main  thesis  is  the  thought  of  redemption.  The  '  coming 
of  the  Logos  in  the  flesh  '  is  '  the  ransom  and  salvation  of 
all  creation,'  the  destruction  of  the  principle  of  corruption 
which  held  man  captive.  The  Incarnation,  whereby  the 
creative  Logos  became  our  perfect  representative  before 
God,  thus  becomes  the  Atonement,  for  the  Cross  is  but 
part  of  the  Incarnation,  the  complete  purpose  of  which 
is  to  *  deify  '  human  nature.  As  such  its  '  achievements 
are  of  such  purpose  and  kind  that  if  one  should  wish  to 
enumerate  them  he  may  be  compared  to  men  who  gaze  at 
the  expanse  of  the  sea  and  wish  to  count  its  waves.'  But 
the  theory  of  Athanasius,  with  its  superficial  resemblance 

1  F»irbairn,  op,  cit.  p.  67  ». 


54    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

to  the  question  and  the  answer  propounded  by  Anselm, 
never  appealed  to  the  Western  Church  until  it  was  restated 
by  Thomas  Aquinas.^ 

Origen's  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  is  remarkable  for 
his  clear  teaching  of  the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son. 
This  relation  is  supra-temporal ;  it  is  an  eternal  process 
within  the  Divine  Being.  "  In  one  point  he  agrees  with 
TertuUian,  while  in  another  he  advances  beyond  him.  On 
the  one  hand  he  freely  interchanges,  as  TertuUian  does, 
the  terms  Logos  and  Son — the  abstract  term  and  that  which 
connotes  moral  relationship  ;  on  the  other  hand,  while 
TertuUian  conceived  the  Trinity  as  economic — God  as  it 
were  in  movement,  opposed  to  God  in  statu — Origen,  by  his 
doctrine  of  the  eternal  generation,  replaces  the  thought 
of  movement  by  that  of  an  eternal  process,  ever  complete 
in  itself,  yet  ever  continued."  ^  But  of  this  movement  of 
Being  the  Father  is  the  supreme  cause  and  source,  and 
therefore  must  be  regarded  as  greater  than  the  Son.  Thus 
side  by  side  with  his  doctrine  of  the  eternal  Sonship  Origen 
formulated  the  notion  of  the  subordination  of  the  Son. 
This  he  pushed  to  extremes  which  undoubtedly  tended  to 
the  later  Arianism.  Thus  he  refused  to  allow  to  the  Son 
essential  goodness,  or  that  the  highest  kind  of  prayer  or 
adoration  may  be  addressed  to  Him.  Yet,  in  spite  of  its 
limitations,  the  advance  in  scientific  Christology  due  to 
Origen  is  very  great ;  how  great  is  unrecognised  by  an 
age  that  can  no  longer  compare  him  with  the  Valentinus 
or  Basilides  from  whose  crudities  he  dehvered  the  Church. 
The  immediate  influence  of  Origen  upon  the  theology 
and  thought  of  the  Eastern  world  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
In  part  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  many  diverse  schools, 
orthodox  and  unorthodox,  could  find  in  Origen  their 
different  arguments,  or,  failing  that,  something  to  arouse 
their  antagonism.  Of  greater  importance  was  his  destruc- 
tion of  the  current  Gnosticism,  and  the  establishment  of 
1  Cf.  Ottlty,  Incarnation,  ii.  p.  80.  «  Ottley,  op.  cit,  i.  p.  248. 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  65 

a  philosophy  of  religion  which  appealed  powerfully  to 
the  cultured  thought  of  the  age.  He  was  the  first  of  the 
great  theologians  of  the  Church.  But,  in  spite  of  the 
influence  which  at  first  he  exerted,  Origen  was  unable  to 
retain  his  standing  in  the  Church  even  in  the  East.  The 
gradual  hardening  of  theological  thought  in  the  fourth 
century  under  the  growing  power  of  tradition,  the  change 
in  thought  which  afterwards  set  in  from  Platonic  idealism 
to  Aristotelian  realism,  and  the  consequent  weakened  hold 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  after  Athanasius,  were  the 
causes  of  this  decline.  Add  the  unrest  produced  by  the 
Arian  and  other  heresies,  all  of  which  could  appeal  to  some 
expression  or  other  of  Origen  in  their  favour.  At  the  in- 
stigation of  Jerome,  who  in  his  earlier  days  had  called 
Origen  '  a  teacher  second  only  to  the  great  Apostle,'  Origen- 
ism  was  condemned  in  the  West.  In  496  Origen  was 
branded  by  Pope  Gelasius  as  a  schismatic  and  the  use  of 
his  works  forbidden,  except  those  sanctioned  by  Jerome's 
translation  into  Latin.  This  was  followed  in  the  East  by 
fresh  condemnations  by  the  Emperor  Justinian  (543),  who 
not  only  closed  the  schools  of  the  philosophers  at  Athens, 
but  the  Christian  schools  at  Alexandria  and  Antioch. 
Henceforth  his  name  was  a  byword  and  reproach  in  the 
East.  The  Orthodox  Church  no  longer  allowed  even  the 
recollection  that  once  there  had  been  room  within  it  for 
variety  of  opinion.  But  in  the  West  there  was  respect  for 
his  learning,  and  passages  from  his  works  were  inserted 
by  Leo  in.  in  the  Breviary.  At  the  Reformation  Luther's 
antagonism  was  followed,  though  in  more  seemly  language, 
by  Melanchthon.  But  in  the  revival  of  much  of  his  teach- 
ing by  the  Cambridge  Platonists  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
as  well  as  by  Maurice  and  Westcott  in  our  own  day,  we  see 
Origen  once  more  obtaining  his  own.  Under  the  influence 
of  a  truer  conception  of  development  Theology  recognises 
in  both  Clement  and  Origen  two  of  her  great  master- 
builders,  though  much  of  their  work  has  not  stood  the  test 


56    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

of  time  and  experience.  Yet  in  many  respects  {e.g.  their 
teaching  on  the  Resurrection)  modem  thought,  in  its  de- 
liverance from  what  Bishop  Westcott  rightly  called  "  the 
heavy  burden  of  African  theology,"  is  now  going  back  to 
positions  first  indicated  by  Origen.  "  Greek  Christian 
thought  has  not  yet  done  its  work  in  the  West."  * 


VI 

The  prevailing  S5mcretism  with  which  Christianity  had 
to  contend  as  a  religious  force  manifested  its  strength  in 
the  philosophic  world  in  the  system  of  Neoplatonism, 
*'  that  splendid  vision  of  incomparable  cloudland,  in  which 
the  sun  of  Greek  philosophy  set."  ^  This  religion  or  philo- 
sophy— both  terms  are  applicable,  for  Neoplatonism  was 
really  a  philosophy  seeking  to  transform  itself  into  a  re- 
ligion— embodied  in  itself  the  elements  of  most  previous 
systems,  both  in  the  East  and  West,  including  not  a  few 
ideas  and  phrases  borrowed  from  Christianity.  Two  of  its 
leaders,  Ammonius  Saccas  and  Plotinus,  are  stated  to  have 
been  lapsed  Christians,  and  another,  AmeUus,  made  use  of 
the  prologue  of  St.  John.  Numenius  seems  to  have  been 
acquainted  with  the  Gospels,  and  possibly  with  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul.  Neoplatonism  claimed  to  be  "  not  only  the 
absolute  philosophy  completing  all  systems,  but  at  the 
same  time  the  absolute  religion,  confirming  and  explaining 
all  earlier  religions."  ^  As  a  philosophy  its  perfect  fruition 
marked  inevitable  decay ;  as  a  religion  it  merits  atten- 
tion by  its  ethical  spirit,  as  well  as  the  emphasis  it  placed 
on  the  experience  of  the  eternal.  In  its  challenge  to  Chris- 
tianity we  see  the  last  organised  rally  of  the  Hellenic  world, 
with  whom  the  subordination  of  religion  to  philosophy 
was  almost  an  axiom.  Neoplatonism,  while  willing  to  five 
and  let  live,  dreaded  and  detested  the  absolutist  claims  of 

1  Weatcott,  op.  cU.  pp.  243.  246.  «  Harnack,  H.D.  i.  p.  341. 

*  Hatch,  op.  cii.  p.  188. 


n.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  67 

Christ,  and  the  conquering  might  of  His  Church.  Its 
hatred  was  increased  by  its  consciousness  that  it  had  no 
message  save  for  '  the  wise  and  prudent,'  whereas  Chris- 
tianity claimed  that  none  were  beyond  her  reach.  Here 
again  we  see  the  mark  of  an  exclusive  Hellenism. 

The  details  of  the  Neoplatonic  philosophy  as  begun  in 
Alexandria  in  a  Jewish  setting  by  Philo,  and  as  set  forth 
in  more  strictly  Hellenic  or  philosophic  form  by  Numenius, 
by  Ammonius  Saccas  (t245),  in  the  Ennmds  of  Plotinus,  in 
Porphyry  (233-305),  or  by  the  later  teachers  at  Athens, 
Plutarch  (t433)  or  Proclus,  belong  rather  to  the  history  of 
philosophy  than  of  Christian  thought.  More  pertinent  is 
it  to  note  the  special  challenge  made  by  Neoplatonism, 
and  the  effect  of  the  challenge  upon  Christian  thinkers. 
Neoplatonism  supplied  for  the  select  few  to  whom  it  ap- 
pealed a  religious  experience  by  contemplation  of  the 
eternal  ideas.  Such  contemplation  involved  a  with- 
drawal from  the  world,  the  turning  of  the  eye  of  the  soul 
inward,  and  presupposed  as  its  condition  an  ascetic  dis- 
cipline. From  this  inward  contemplation  the  soul  rose 
by  mystic  intuition  or  aesthetic  feeling  into  union  with  the 
Absolute.  In  Neoplatonism,  therefore,  we  have  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  mystics  of  the  Christian  Church 
and  the  old  Hellenic  world  of  philosophy.  And  just  as  the 
idea  of  a  crucified  Saviour  is  contrary  to  the  whole  genius 
of  Neoplatonism,  so  in  Christian  mysticism,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  the  danger  ever  lies  in  an  inadequate  doctrine  of 
the  Atonement. 

The  master-architect  of  Neoplatonism  was  Plotinus,  one 
of  the  profoundest  and  most  religious  thinkers  the  world 
has  known.  Though  himself  outside  the  Christian  Church, 
no  one,  except  St.  Augustine,  has  had  a  more  lasting  in- 
fluence upon  the  thought  of  the  Church.  Plotinus,  a 
fellow-student  of  Origen,  was  bom  at  LycopoHs  in  Egypt 
about  205  a.d.  In  244  he  settled  in  Rome,  where  his 
influence  was  remarkable.     His  writings  were  voluminous, 


68    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

and  were  collected  by  his  biographer  Porphyry  into  six 
books  called  Enneads.  As  he  died  (269)  he  said  to  his 
companion  :  '  Now  the  divine  in  me  is  struggling  to  reunite 
with  the  divine  in  the  AIL' 

His  last  words  are  an  exposition  of  his  whole  system. 
The  universe  is  one,  a  vast  chain  in  which  every  being  is 
a  link.  The  centre  of  all  is  the  Absolute,  who  transcends 
all  thought,  even  being  itself.  The  Absolute,  in  fact,  is  just 
nothing  except  sheer  pure  oneness.  From  this  Absolute 
we  have  the  emanation  of  Mind  (Nous),  the  second  name 
in  the  Trinity  of  Plotinus — speedily  identified  by  the 
Christians  with  the  Logos — which  radiates  from  God  as 
light  from  a  luminous  body,  producing  thereby  the  world 
of  Ideas,  the  patterns  after  which  our  phenomenal  world — 
i.e.  the  world  as  we  see  it,  not  as  God  sees  it — is  framed. 
A  second  overflow  of  Mind  is  Soul — the  third  name  in  the 
Trinity — the  Oversoul  which  is  diffused  everywhere,  in 
animals,  vegetables,  and  the  earth  itself,  which  enfolds 
within  itself  all  individual  souls,  being,  as  it  were,  the 
higher  soul  within  every  individual  soul.  Matter  by  itself 
is  No-thing,  i.e.  pure  indetermination.  This  limit  or  barrier 
as  it  were  to  which  soul  comes  breaks  into  endless  multi- 
plicity that  which  in  its  origin  was  one.  Space  and  Time 
are  forms  only  of  thought.  All  progress  lies  in  the  attain- 
ment of  the  Absolute,  the  first  step  to  which  is  the  dis- 
covery by  the  lowest  soul,  i.e.  the  soul  bound  up  with  the 
body,  of  its  union  with  the  Oversoul ;  the  second  the  grasp- 
ing that  which  is  *  even  more  divine,  the  soul's  neighbour 
above  {i.e.  Mind),  after  whom  and  from  whom  the  soul  is.' 
The  method  of  such  attainment  is  by  '  contemplation ' 
in  the  realm  of  pure  thought.  The  last  stage  in  the  quest 
of  the  Absolute  is  the  most  difficult,  and  is  reserved 
for  the  initiated.  Its  method  is  by  vision  or  ecstasy, 
when  self-consciousness  is  transcended.  But  of  this, 
therefore,  no  description  can  ever  be  given  :  '  For  how 
can  a   man   tell   of   that   as  other   than  himself  which 


II.]  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLAS  69 

when  he  discerned  it  seemed  not  other  but  one  with 
himself  ?  ' 

With  the  intensely  scholastic  Proclus  (t485)  Neopla- 
tonism  reached  its  zenith.  Forty  years  after  his  decease 
the  schools  of  Athens  were  closed  by  the  order  of  Justinian 
(529),  and  the  little  band  of  seven  philosophers,  all  that 
were  left,  were  driven  into  Persia.  Orthodoxy,  blind  to 
the  facts  of  its  own  history,  and  with  eyes  from  which  the 
future  was  sealed,  would  brook  no  rival  in  the  teaching  of 
truth.  This  defeat  and  suppression  were  really  for  Neo- 
platonism  the  beginning  of  a  more  lasting  triumph.  The 
schools  in  which  for  eight  hundred  years  pagan  philosophers 
had  taught  might  be  closed,  but  before  Justinian  was  in  his 
grave  the  great  ideas  of  the  Neoplatonists  had  begun  their 
long  rule  in  Christian  thought.  Through  Victorinus,  the 
converted  philosopher,  in  whose  writings  Christian  ter- 
minology only  thinly  veils  his  old  Neoplatonic  ideas; 
through  Boethius ;  above  all  things  through  the  pseudo- 
Dionysius  and  his  interpreter  Erigena ;  through  Eckhart 
and  the  long  line  of  Christian  mystics,  Neoplatonism,  driven 
out  of  Athens  by  intolerance,  found  in  the  Church  for  a 
thousand  years  a  congenial  home. 

The  influence  of  Neoplatonism  upon  Christianity  was  as 
many-sided  as  it  was  profound.  Neoplatonism  was  always 
attracted  by  certain  aspects  in  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul. 
Neoplatonism  had  prepared  Victorinus  for  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  in  opposition  to  morahsm,  and  from 
Victorinus  it  passed  to  St.  Augustine.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  emphasis  by  Neoplatonism  of  '  contemplation '  and 
ecstasy  as  rungs  in  the  ladder  whereby  we  climb  to  per- 
fection ;  that  in  comparison  with  ecstasy  action  is  but 
*  coarsened  thought '  ;  its  identification,  especially  in 
Proclus,  of  perfection  or  the  Absolute  with  that  which  is 
emptied  of  all  distinctions,  above  all  of  the  human ;  its 
teaching  that  the  phenomenal  world  is  a  shadow  only  of 
the  timeless  Intelligible  World  of  the  divine  Ideas,  tended, 


60    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

among  other  causes,  to  the  growth  of  Monasticism,  especi- 
ally in  its  eremitical  or  solitary  form  as  exemplified  in  the 
Thebaid.  Monasticism,  it  is  true,  detested  Neoplatonism 
with  a  hatred  which  mistook  difference  of  method  for 
fundamental  difference  of  aim.  Nevertheless,  it  is  not 
an  accident  that  the  sway  of  Neoplatonism  in  Christian 
thought,  and  the  domination  of  the  monastery  in  the 
Church,  perished  together.  Of  equal  importance  for 
Christian  thought  was  the  Neoplatonist  conception  of  evil 
as  in  itself  nothing,  not  merely  unreal  but  unreality  itself, 
the  negation  or  privation  of  pure  being.  For  this  conception, 
as  for  much  else,  St.  Augustine  is  profoundly  indebted  to 
Neoplatonic  ideas,  though  no  one  saw  more  clearly  where 
Christianity  and  Neoplatonism  must  inevitably  part 
company.^  Through  St.  Augustine  and  Dionysius^  the  idea 
became  part  of  Christian  thought,  or  rather  of  Christian 
theology,  for  Christianity  can  have  little  sympathy  with 
an  unreal  optimism  whose  note  of  triumph  comes  from 
explaining  away  instead  of  overcoming  the  sin  and  sorrow 
which  surround  us. 

*  /i^fo,  p.  lie.  *  In/ra,  c  vi.  §  r. 


UL]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  61 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  PERSON   OF  CHRIST 
Argument 

§  I.  Difficulty  of  the  problem — Controversy  inevitable— In- 
justice of  divorcing  the  controversy  from  history — 
Earlier  stages  of  the  problem — Growth  of  controversy 
— Failure  to  understand  St.  Paul — Two  tendencies 
at  work — Problem  of  the  Trinity — Inadequacy  of 
language — The  dynamic  of  a  living  faith — The 
penalties  of  the  controversy      ....    pp.   62-72 

§  II.  Gnostic  solutions — Doctrine  of  the  Logos — Monarch- 
ianism  —  Sabellius  —  Modalism  —  The  school  of 
Antioch pp.   72-79 

§  III.  Arianism  and  its  meaning — Danger  of — The  appeal  to 
experience — The  strength  of  Arianism — East  and 
West— The  Barbarians pp.   79-83 

§  IV.  The  humanity  of  Christ — Apollinaris — The  Athanasian 
Creed  —  Nestorius  —  Monophysitism  —  The  Mono- 
thelite  controversy — The  exhaustion  of  the  Eastern 
Church pp.  83-89 


\ 


62    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 


No  problem  of  the  early  Christians  was  more  difficult  than 
the  reconciliation  of  their  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  with 
Monotheism  in  such  a  way  that  they  could  justify  their 
faith,  and  live  by  it.  The  ascription  of  deity  to  Jesus  was 
not  difficult,  at  any  rate  for  the  Gentile  who  had  been 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  in  which  there  is  no  conscious- 
ness of  the  sharp  gulf  between  man  and  God  which  Chris- 
tianity has  taught  us  to  realise.  But  as  the  Jewish  converts, 
among  whom  Christianity  arose,  would  be  the  first  to  point 
out,  such  ascription  of  deity  must  not  be  purchased  at  the 
expense  of  their  monotheistic  faith.  Another  problem, 
the  solution  of  which  was  equally  difficult,  and  equally 
necessary,  was  the  giving  an  accurate  definition  of  the 
Person  of  Jesus.  This  second  problem  was  really  historic- 
ally first,  if  we  view  the  matter  in  the  order  of  thought, 
and  gave  rise  to  the  other.  The  Early  Church  started  with 
the  unity  of  God,  at  the  same  time  clinging  tenaciously 
to  the  deity  of  the  historic  Saviour.  Only  slowly  was  the 
Church  driven  to  see  that  the  solution  of  the  problem  in- 
volved must  be  found  in  a  distinction  within  the  Divine 
Unity  and  in  a  careful  definition  of  His  Person.  From  the 
earliest  days  these  problems  were  acutely  felt ;  in  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  they  became  burning  questions  in  the 
Church,  round  which  centred  its  life  and  thought.  Contro- 
versy on  both  matters  was  endless.  The  battle  when  quiet 
on  the  main  field  was  renewed  in  many  side  conflicts. 
Nothing  would  be  more  profitless  than  to  go  through  the 
details  of  the  struggle,  to  fill  our  pages  with  the  names  of 
the  antagonists,  with  the  details  of  their  arguments.    We 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  63 

shall  content  ourselves  with  pointing  out  the  movement 
of  thought  which  may  be  discerned  in  the  controversies 
viewed  as  a  whole. 

Discussion  on  the  nature  of  the  Person  of  Christ  was 
inevitable,  the  direct  outcome  of  the  genius  of  Christianity 
itself.  For  the  religion  of  Jesus  differs  from  every  other 
religion  in  the  relation  it  bears  to  its  Founder.  Christianity 
is  something  far  more  than  the  belief  in,  or  the  acceptance 
of,  any  principles  or  doctrines,  though  these,  no  doubt, 
form  no  small  part  of  its  content.  It  is  essentially  adher- 
ence to  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  Who  do  men  say 
that  I  am  ?  "  is  still  the  question  that  must  be  answered 
by  every  would-be  believer.  The  avowal  of  St.  Thomas, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God,"  is  still  the  one  answer  to  all  doubt 
that  wins  the  benediction  of  the  Master.  The  institution 
of  the  Eucharist  as  the  central  sacrament  of  the  Church, 
with  its  ever  repeated  memory  of  His  death,  its  constant 
realisation  of  His  living  and  real  presence,  shows  that  from 
the  first  the  Church  recognised  that  this  personal  relation- 
ship was  the  fundamental  fact  in  its  existence.  In  Chris- 
tianity, as  Dr.  Fairbaim  well  puts  it,  "  the  pre-eminence 
belongs  to  His  Person,  not  to  His  words  :  His  people  live 
by  faith,  not  in  what  He  said,  but  in  what  He  is  ;  they  are 
governed  not  by  statutes  He  framed,  but  by  the  ideal  He 
embodied."  Thus  the  supreme  end  of  Christian  theology 
must  be  the  giving  full  intellectual  expression  to  the  truth 
as  manifested  to  men  once  for  all  in  the  person  and  life 
of  Jesus  Christ.  But  this  is  so  unspeakably  rich  that  it 
needs  for  its  explication  the  varying  study  and  experiences 
of  all  individuals,  races,  and  civilisations  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  study  of  theology  is  so  often  divorced  from  the 
study  of  history,  even  the  history  of  the  Church,  that  in- 
justice has  long  been  done  to  the  controversies  in  question. 
Abstraction  from  reality,  fatal  in  any  science,  is  never 
so  disastrous  as  when  dogma  is  separated  from  life  and 
experience.     Nicaea  taken  by  itself  is,  perhaps,  unintelli- 


64    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

gible ;  Nicaea  studied  in  connection  with  the  three  cen- 
turies of  struggle  that  preceded  it  becomes  no  longer  the 
arena  of  contending  syllogisms,  but  a  crown  laid  at  the 
feet  of  the  triumphant  Christ.  At  Nicaea  many  of  the 
bishops  of  the  dominant  party  still  bore  in  their  persons 
the  marks  of  the  sujfferings  they  had  endured  for  their 
Lord.  Only  a  few  years  severed  the  council  from  the  three 
centuries  of  blood  and  fire  through  which  the  Church  had 
been  called  to  pass.  If  in  the  noble  army  of  martyrs  we 
salute  the  conquerors  of  the  world,  we  must  not  forget  the 
cause  of  their  victory.  They  did  not  lay  down  their  lives 
for  vague  generahties,  wider  visions,  or  larger  hopes. 
They  knew  in  whom  they  believed.  Through  a  confidence 
in  His  divine  claims,  so  absolute  that  they  scorned  the 
most  awful  torments  rather  than  subtract  one  jot  or  tittle 
from  His  honours,  the  martyrs  had  accompUshed  the  most 
stupendous  revolution  which  the  world  has  ever  known, 
had  sapped  and  dissolved  gigantic  polytheisms,  and  had 
overthrown  the  Roman  Empire  itself.  Vicistiy  Galilaee  is  not 
merely  the  self-conscious  cry  of  a  dying  paganism  ;  it  is 
the  testimony  wrung  from  the  reluctant  lips  of  Julian  to 
the  personaUty  of  the  conqueror.  That  the  Church  in  its 
hour  of  triumph  should  consent  to  abate  in  the  smallest 
iota  the  full  measure  of  the  rights  of  Christ  was  impossible. 
Veterans  do  not  so  easily  forget  their  chief.  For  the  Church 
thus  to  deny  the  Lord  and  Master  for  whom  she  had 
suffered  all  things,  by  whom  she  had  conquered  all,  would 
have  been  an  ingratitude  so  complete  that  it  would  leave 
the  victory  she  had  won  more  marvellous  still,  because 
totally  unexplained. 

This  position  will  shed  light  on  another  matter  which 
has  sometimes  puzzled  the  unwary.  In  the  earlier  days 
of  the  Church  the  Christologicai  problem  was  less  pressing 
than  in  later  centuries.  Jesus  was  Himself  all  the  philo- 
sophy the  Christians  needed ;  He  made  them  wise  unto 
salvation.    They  had,  it  is  true,  no  confident  phrases  in 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  65 

which  to  sum  up  His  meaning.  They  might,  in  fact, 
stumble  into  all  sorts  of  confusions  when  they  expressed 
themselves  about  Him,  as  we  see  Hermas  doing  in  his 
Shepherd.  But,  after  all,  this,  at  any  rate  at  first,  was 
immaterial.  It  was  enough  that  they  called  Him  Lord, 
that,  as  Pliny  found,  they  sang  their  hymns  to  Him  as  God. 
From  the  first  His  deity  was  viewed  as  a  simple  historic 
fact,  which  scarcely  called  for  explanation.  With  the 
Ebionite,  who  claimed  that  a  suffering  Christ  could  not  be 
divine  ;  with  the  Docetist,  who  added  that  if  He  was  divine 
His  sufferings  were  unreal ;  with  Marcion,  who  maintained 
that  He  had  not  passed  through  human  birth  or  develop- 
ment, the  early  Church  refused  to  argue  save  by  the 
reaffirmation  of  the  truths  denied.  "  Without  knowing 
how  or  why,  they  believed  that  in  Him  they  had  seen  the 
Father,  and  in  His  name  found  power  to  walk  as  sons. 
Their  experience  carried  its  own  vindication  to  that  dis- 
tracted later  Empire,  for  joy  and  strength  justify  them- 
selves, and  men  joined  their  company  that  they  might 
pass  out  of  weakness  and  fear."  ^  But  with  the  joining  of 
the  heathen  recruits  trouble  began  ;  the  early  fervour  gave 
place  to  a  spirit  of  criticism.  There  was  a  surprising  one- 
ness in  their  experience  of  Christ,  but  when  attempts  were 
made  to  give  the  interpretation  or  scientific  explanation, 
unity  ceased.  His  very  pre-existence,  which  all  allowed, 
assumed  a  new  meaning  when  the  term  passed  from  the 
Jewish  to  the  Hellenic  world.  With  the  Jew  pre-existence 
is  an  attribute  of  all  that  is  real,  even  of  the  furniture  of  the 
Mosaic  tent  of  meeting,  much  more  of  the  Messiah  (1  Peter 
i.  20).  But  with  the  Greek  pre-existence  is  the  mark  only 
of  the  spirit.  Thus  we  are  plunged  at  once  into  the  whole 
controversy  of  the  nature  of  the  Person  of  Christ.  For  a 
while  the  widest  freedom  of  thought  was  allowed  regarding 
the  Lord  whom  all  adored.  But  the  pressure  of  heathen- 
ism without,  and  of  heresy  within,  forced  the  Church  to 

1  Professor  Armitage  in  Eibbert  Journal,  July  1910,  p.  841. 
£ 


66    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

attempt  to  find  some  formula  of  faith  which  would  unite 
all,  satisfy  most  fully  the  needful  conditions,  and  interpret 
Christ  to  the  world. 

Nothing  would  be  more  interesting  than  to  follow  out 
the  development  of  the  consciousness  in  the  Apostles  them- 
selves that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  must  be  far  more  than 
the  historic  Jesus  of  the  Gospels ;  but  this  hes  outside 
our  scope.  By  the  end  of  the  first  century  the  Church 
reahsed  that  any  adequate  definition  of  the  Person  of 
Christ  could  not  be  simple.  In  any  solution  "  three  things 
were  demanded  :  a  Man  who  actually  lived,  worked,  and 
suffered  ;  a  Divine  Word  whose  presence  has  always  been 
in  the  world,  but  has  been  manifested  with  a  special  power 
since  the  Incarnation  ;  and  One,  Human  and  yet  Divine, 
who  is  constantly  revealing  Himself  with  increasing  clear- 
ness to  the  conscience  of  man.  We  want  a  Christ  of  the 
past,  of  the  present,  and  of  the  future — of  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  for  ever."  ^  But  an  adequate  synthesis  of  these  needs 
was  not  reached  all  at  once.  The  Church  needed  a  long 
education  before  she  was  fitted  to  expound  the  complete 
Catholic  doctrine.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  her  difficulty 
was  increased  by  the  lack  in  ancient  thought  of  the  modem 
idea  of  personality.^  Only  slowly,  by  bitter  experience, 
was  the  end  attained.  As  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  the 
conflicts  of  a  faith  struggling  to  be  articulate  wrought 
out  first  the  terminology  of  our  creeds,  and  then  their  precise 
expression. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  aver  that  the  Christological 
struggle  of  the  second  and  third  centuries  was  part  of  the 
penalty  paid  by  the  Early  Church  for  its  failure,  so  marked 
in  more  ways  than  one,  to  understand  St.  Paul.  The  great 
spiritual  conceptions  of  the  Apostle  soar  clear  out  of  the 
ken  of  the  early  fathers.  When  they  think  they  under- 
stand him  they  too  often  degrade  him.     We  have  illus- 

»  Foakes-Jtckson  In  Cambridge  Theological  Essays,  p.  624. 
•  Dorner,  op.  cit.  A.  iL  p.  610. 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  67 

trations  of  this  in  the  hard  legal  notions  which  Tertullian 
and  Augustine  imported  into  St.  Paul's  great  contrast 
between  Adam  and  Christ,  and  in  the  alteration  in  the 
Roman  symbol  of  St.  Paul's  explicit  denial  that  the  flesh 
rises  again  into  the  materialistic  clause  of  a  belief  in  the 
carnis  resurrectionem.  So  also  with  regard  to  the  doctrine 
of  Christ.  "  In  the  Apostolic  Fathers  and  in  the  earlier 
Apologists  we  find  indeed  for  the  most  part  a  practical 
application  of  the  Person  of  Christ  which  leaves  nothing 
to  be  desired  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  venture  upon  any 
directly  dogmatic  statement  we  miss  at  once  the  firmness 
of  grasp  and  clearness  of  conception  which  mark  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Apostles.  If  they  desire  to  emphasise  the 
majesty  of  His  Person,  they  not  unfrequently  fall  into 
language  which  savours  of  Patripassianism.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  wish  to  present  Him  in  His  mediatorial 
capacity,  they  use  words  which  seem  to  imply  some  divine 
being  who  is  God  and  yet  not  quite  God,  neither  Creator 
nor  creature.  .  .  .  The  true  successors  of  the  Apostles  in 
this  respect  are  not  the  fathers  of  the  second  century,  but 
the  fathers  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  In  the  ex- 
positors of  the  Nicene  age  we  find  indeed  technical  terms 
and  systematic  definitions  which  we  do  not  find  in  the 
Apostles  themselves,  .  .  .  but  the  main  idea  of  Christ's 
Person  with  which  St.  Paul  confronts  Gnostic  Judaism  is 
essentially  the  same  as  that  which  the  fathers  of  these  later 
centuries  opposed  to  the  Sabellianism  and  the  Arianism  of 
their  own  age."  ^ 

In  this  prolonged  struggle,  whatever  fault  lay  as  its  root, 
we  find  two  tendencies  at  work  "  each  rooted  deep  in 
human  nature,  each  working  inside  and  outside  the  Church, 
and  each  traversing  the  whole  field  of  Christian  doctrine. 
The  first  tendency  was  distinctly  rationalistic.  Its  crude 
form  of  Ebionism  had  denied  the  Lord's  divinity  outright. 
And  now  that  this  was  accepted,  it  was  viewed  as  a  mere 

1  Lightfoot,  Colossians,  pp.  124-125, 


68    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

influence  or  power,  or,  at  any  rate,  as  not  divine  in  the 
highest  sense.  Thus  the  reahty  of  the  Incarnation  was 
sacrificed,  and  the  result  was  a  clear  reaction  to  the  demi- 
gods of  polytheism.  The  other  tendency,  already  roughly 
shadowed  out  in  the  docetic  evasion  of  the  Lord's  humanity, 
was  mystic  in  its  character.  Accepting  the  full  deity  that 
was  in  Christ,  they  reduced  it  to  a  mere  appearance  or 
modification  of  the  One.  Thus  the  reahty  of  the  Incar- 
nation was  undermined  on  the  other  side,  and  the  result 
was  a  clear  step  back  to  pantheism.  The  first  of  these 
tendencies  endangered  the  Lord's  divinity,  the  second  His 
distinction  from  the  Father.  The  difficulty  was  to  fmd 
some  means  of  asserting  both.  In  the  fourth  century  it 
became  clear  that  the  problem  required  a  distinction  to 
be  made  inside  the  divine  unity  ;  and  as  the  Lord's  bap- 
tismal formula  associated  the  Holy  Spirit  as  well  as  the 
Son  with  the  Father,  it  followed  that  the  God  of  Christianity^ 
is  not  personal  but  tri-personal.  Arianism  laid  down  a 
merely  external,  Sabellianism  a  merely  economic  Trinity  ; 
but  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  satisfied  the  conditions 
of  the  problem.  It,  therefore,  became  necessary  to  re- 
verse the  idea  of  a  personality,  and  acknowledge  not  three 
individuals  but  three  eternal  aspects  (uTroo-rao-cis)  of  the 
divine,  facing  inward  on  each  other  as  well  as  outward 
on  the  world."  ^ 

We  see  the  same  problems  when  we  look  at  the  develop- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  ask  what  were  the 
conditions  which  must  be  satisfied.  First  and  foremost, 
the  unity  or  Oneness  of  the  Godhead  must  be  preserved  at 
all  costs.  The  pressure  of  heathenism,  let  alone  its  Jewish 
ancestry,  prevented  the  Church  from  forgetting  this. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  Christianity  was  not  Judaism, 
however  enlarged  or  reformed.  It  was  through  ignoring 
this  that  the  Jewish  Cliristian  Church  wrote  its  doom.  In 
the  meagre  Christology  of  the  chief  epistle  of  that  Church, 

1  Gwatkin,  Studies  of  Arianism,  p.  8. 


III.]  THE  PEKSON  OF  CHRIST  69 

St.  James,  we  see  the  secret  of  its  decay.  For  Christianity, 
as  we  have  already  emphasised,  centred  in  Jesus  Christ. ^ 
But  experience  was  to  show  that  no  such  position  was 
possible  which  did  not  grant  to  Jesus  Christ  full  deity. 
The  relation  of  such  deity  to  the  essential  unity  must, 
however,  be  so  stated  that  heathenism  should  not  claim 
a  ditheistic  Christianity  as  akin  to  itself.  The  difficulties 
were  further  increased  by  the  need,  which  the  Church  soon 
felt,  arising  out  of  its  early  baptismal  formula,  of  guarding 
the  real  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  explaining 
His  relation  in  the  Tri-unity. 

The  difficulty  under  which  the  Church  laboured  in  putting 
into  exact  words  and  definitions  its  concepts  of  God,  of 
Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  only  natural.  Language 
is  never  an  adequate  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  the  deeper 
facts  of  the  soul ;  logic  is  impotent  in  the  presence  of  the 
vivid  intuitions  of  experience.  Necessarily,  therefore, 
language  and  logic,  even  the  subtle  language  of  Greece, 
proved  altogether  unequal  to  the  task  of  wrapping  up 
in  cold  phrases  all  that  the  Christians  had  experienced 
as  truth  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  scientific  terminology  of 
dogma  had  yet  to  be  created  ;  only  by  slow  sifting  was  the 
orthodox  connotation  determined.  "  The  history  of  the 
terms  used  in  Greek  theology  has  still  to  be  written,  and 
only  when  it  has  been  will  the  continuance  within  the  theo- 
logy of  old  philosophical  questions  be  made  apparent."  ^ 
Unbelief  has  never  ceased  to  laugh  at  the  difficulties  into 
which,  in  consequence,  the  theologians  fell ;  the  records  of 
their  fierce  conflicts  over  differences  of  an  iota,  the  in- 
adequacy, possibly  the  unintelligibility,  of  their  resultant 
definitions.  But  unbelief  has  generally  failed  to  see  that 
the  questions  that  puzzled  the  theologians  were  the  same 
that  were  baffling  the  philosophers,  and  that  philosopher 
and  theologian  were  seeking  a  solution  upon  parallel  lines. 

1  Cf.  Fairbairn,  Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  532-583. 
*  Fairbairn,  Christ  in  Modem  Theology,  p.  89  n. 


70    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Yet  it  would  be  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  subtle 
discussions  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  were  the  result 
of  a  philosophical  spirit  ahen  to  Christianity,  intruding  with 
its  noisy  jargon  into  what  would  otherwise  have  been  a 
holy  of  hoHes.  The  mistake  is  not  without  some  justifica- 
tion. No  doubt  the  controversies  of  the  fourth  century, 
when  looked  at  from  a  distance,  often  hide  the  real  Ufe  of  the 
Church.  But  this  is  due  to  an  exaggerated  emphasis  upon 
the  details  of  the  controversies  themselves,  instead  of 
grasping  the  root  from  which  they  sprang.  For,  in  spite 
of  the  metaphysical  terms  in  which  the  struggle  abounds, 
the  cause  of  contention  and  its  issue  were  not  metaphysical 
at  all.  The  controversies  on  the  Person  of  Christ  were  not 
the  outcome  of  an  attempted  transformation  of  the  faith 
into  a  system  of  speculative  theology,  but  were  due  to  the 
richness  and  breadth  of  the  spiritual  experiences  which 
men  felt  owed  their  all  to  Him.  This  it  was  that  led  the 
Fathers,  in  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul,  to  become  Greek,  if  only 
they  might  win  some  ;  it  was  their  loyalty  to  Christ,  not 
their  love  of  metaphysics.  The  test  of  any  definition, 
whether  in  physics  or  theology,  is  its  power  of  fitting  in  with 
the  facts  of  life.  Judged  by  this  test,  the  theologians  may 
be  indifferent  to  criticism.  Poor  at  best  as  the  definitions 
must  be  in  which  they  sought  to  express  all  that  Christ 
thus  meant,  yet  their  definitions  have  survived  the  wear 
and  tear  of  centuries  just  because  in  a  real  way  they  em- 
bodied vital  experiences,  and  made  salvation  through 
Christ  the  central  point  of  theological  thought.  The 
twentieth  century  may  not  approve  of  fourth-century 
metaphysics,  may  be  bewildered  by  terms  some  of  which 
have  lost  their  meaning.  Nevertheless,  the  creeds  remain 
because  there  was  in  them  the  dynamic  of  a  living  faith. 
The  dogmas  of  Nicaea  and  Chalcedon,  if  they  had  been 
but  a  bold,  splendid  piece  of  constructive  metaphysics,  the 
completion  of  the  Greek  quest  after  a  scientific  expression  of 
God  would  have  perished.   They  have  lived  because  they  are 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  71 

among  the  affirmatives  and  imperatives  which  from  time 
to  time  surge  up  in  consciousness,  and  which  carry  a  larger 
authority  than  belongs  to  any  dialectic.  Their  value  does 
not  lie  in  their  accordance  with  objective  reality ;  for  of 
that  in  the  nature  of  things  we  are  unable  to  judge — '  no  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time  ' — but  in  the  complete  explana- 
tion they  give  of  the  deepest  facts  of  experience  and  history. 
In  this  imperfect  world  there  are  few  issues  that  are 
simple.  We  may,  therefore,  own  that  the  Christological 
struggles  of  the  fourth  century,  inevitable  as  we  believe 
them  to  have  been,  valuable  as  we  hold  their  issues,  exacted 
their  price.  Some  writers  think  that,  as  a  result  of  the 
struggle,  Christianity  suffered.  The  resultant  theology,  it 
is  said,  represents  the  triumph  of  *'  scholastic  terms  and 
moral  realities."  ^  This  view,  though  often  exaggerated, 
contains  some  truth.  In  many  quarters  there  was  an  un- 
fortunate shifting  of  the  centre  of  gravity.  God  was  not 
sufficiently  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  consciousness  of 
Christ.  For  a  faith  in  the  living  Christ  we  find  the  sub- 
stitution of  belief  in  a  complicated  theory  about  His  Person. 
This  is  seen  in  its  worst  form  in  certain  clauses  of  the 
symbol  known  to-day  as  the  Athanasian  Creed,  which  the 
Eastern  Church  has  always  refused  to  recognise.  The 
clauses  in  question  appear  to  be  of  medieval  Prankish 
origin.  Instead  of  fellowship  and  trust  in  the  Redeemer 
as  the  condition  of  salvation,  the  acceptance  is  demanded 
of  certain  verbal  subtleties.  Apart  altogether  from  the 
injury  done  by  thus  turning  the  Gospel  into  a  legal  statute 
hedged  round  with  sanctions,  we  have  here  a  fatal  inversion 
of  the  true  order  of  life,  in  which  experience  must  always 
come  first,  theories  about  experience  duly  follow.  More- 
over, the  invariable  tendency  of  all  such  descriptions  of 
God  "  in  terms  neuter  and  abstract,  rather  than  personal 
and  moral,"  is  "  the  de-ethicisation  of  Deity,"  ^  and  the 

1  Fairbairn,  op.  dt.  p.  91.    Cf.  Harnack,  H.D.  iii.  p.  8 ;  iv.  p.  49  n. 

^  Fairbairn,  op.  cit.  p.  405. 


72    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

divorce  of  the  concept  of  God  from  relation  to  man.  But 
this  was  the  characteristic  of  much  else  that  was  medieval 
besides  the  clauses  of  this  symbol. 


n 

One  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  grapple  with  the  Giristo- 
logical  problem  was  that  of  Gnosticism.  We  have  seen 
its  failure.  By  their  insistence  that  matter  was  the  handi- 
work of  Satan  the  Gnostics  reduced  the  Incarnation  to 
an  illusion.  The  Divine  Man  who  could  be  touched  with 
a  feeling  for  human  infirmity  became  a  contradiction  in 
ideas.  His  mission  had  not  been  to  raise  our  human  nature, 
but  to  annihilate  it.  His  Gospel  was  not  the  glad  tidings  of 
redemption,  but  the  call  to  warfare  with  all  forms  of  the 
seen.  Gnosticism  thus  struck  at  the  root  of  Christian  faith. 
But  when  we  ask  wherein  lay  the  strength  and  attraction 
of  this  Gnostic  idea  for  many  Christians  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, it  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  answer.  The  conscious- 
ness of  the  value  of  man  as  man  is  one  of  the  results  of 
Christianity  itself,  the  chief  factor  in  which  was  the  realisa- 
tion of  the  humanity  of  Jesus.  Priceless  as  the  doctrine 
of  the  real  humanity  of  Jesus  may  seem  to  the  twentieth 
century,  we  are  guilty  of  false  historical  perspective  if  we 
imagine  that  it  would  appear  of  such  value  to  the  second. 
The  Church  was  driven  to  fight  for  it,  if  it  would  be  true  to 
its  deposit,  above  all  if  it  was  to  retain  its  Gospels  and  its 
historical  foundations.  But  the  difficulty  in  fighting,  which 
the  Church  itself  felt,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  for  the  majority 
of  the  theologians,  both  in  the  Early  and  Medieval  Church, 
the  real  humanity  of  Christ  may  have  been  a  dogma  of 
faith,  it  certainly  did  not  bulk  largely  either  in  their 
experience  or  their  creeds.  Harnack,  in  spite  of  some 
exaggeration,  is  not  far  wrong  when  he  points  out  that 
in  the  Christology  of  Athanasius,  the  one  man  who  more 
than  any  other  **  saved  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  living 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  73 

fellowship  with  God,"  every  trait  which  recalls  the  historical 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  erased.^  Only  in  the  school  of  Antioch 
do  we  find  adequate  insistence  on  the  fact  of  Jesus.  The 
consequences  of  this  will  appear  later  in  the  growth  of 
Monophysitism  and  other  heresies. 

The  answer  of  the  Church  to  Gnosticism  was  twofold. 
Jn  Rome  it  would  seem  to  have  led  to  the  formation  of  the 
symbol  known  in  its  later  development  as  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  On  the  other  hand,  in  opposition  or  contrast  to 
the  aeons  and  emanations  of  Gnosticism,  Justin  and  Origen 
had  laid  stress  on  the  pre-existence  of  Christ  as  the  Logos. 
With  the  Alexandrians  this  was  the  central  point  of  their 
theology.  Before  the  rise  of  Gnosticism  the  term  '  Logos,' 
as  Domer  has  pointed  out,  was  but  "  a  little  used 
treasure."  ^  We  owe  it  to  Gnosticism  that  its  significance 
was  expanded  and  realised  both  in  the  East  and  West. 
Nevertheless,  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  despite  its  clear 
statement  and  application  to  Jesus  by  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  as  we  see  from  its  later  history  and  from 
our  creeds  and  symbols,  never  became  firmly  established 
in  the  Catholic  Church.  Though  dear  to  the  Apologist 
and  theologian,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  become  part  of 
the  living  faith  of  the  common  people  ;  on  the  contrary,  to 
them  it  seemed  rather  to  threaten  the  simplicity  of  faith. 
Possibly,  as  at  Nicaea,  the  common  people  and  not  the 
philosophers  were  right.  The  term  Logos  is  too  abstract ; 
its  tendency  is  "to  obscure  the  personal  elements  in  the 
Divine  relation."  ^  Hence  it  is  difficult  to  state  the  doctrine 
of  the  Logos  in  terms  which  do  not  issue  in  its  reduction 
to  a  cosmic  or  dynamic  force,  with  too  exaggerated  refer- 
ence to  the  universe  rather  than  to  salvation,  a  weakness 
common  to  all  the  Apologists. 

The  failure  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos  to  maintain  its 
hold  in  the  Church  gave  rise  to  a  set  of  opinions  classed 

1  Harnack,  H.D.  iv.  p.  45.  2  Domer,  Person  of  Christy  A.  i.  p.  257, 

»  Ottley,  op.  cit.  i.  pp.  262,  296. 


74    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

under  the  general  title  of  Monarcliianism.  Though  in  time 
Monarchianism  degenerated  into  heresy,  it  began  in  a 
reaction  of  orthodoxy.  The  insistence  upon  the  Lord's 
divinity,  without  adequate  explanation  of  the  relation  of 
that  divinity  to  the  Father,  was  leading  back  to  a  refined 
ditheism.  So  in  opposition  both  to  Gnosticism  and  to 
exaggerated  and  involved  statements  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Logos,  certain  thinkers  laid  emphasis  on  the  '  monarchy,* 
the  sole  absolute  being  and  rule  of  God  the  Father. 

'  Monarchy,'  as  applied  to  God,  was  a  familiar  term  with 
the  Greeks,  but  in  a  sense  fundamentally  different  from 
its  use  in  Christianity.  To  the  Greek  thinkers  of  the  second 
century  polytheism  in  the  sense  of  a  number  of  Gods  of 
equal  power  was  a  discarded  theory.  As  Plutarch  and 
Maximus  of  Tyre  are  ever  insisting,  there  must  be  one 
god  supreme  over  all  others.  But  this  did  not  prevent 
belief  in  the  existence  of  lesser  deities,  "  mediatised  gods  " 
as  Dr.  Bigg  happily  calls  them,  borrowing  a  figure  from 
the  relation  in  the  German  Empire  of  the  lesser  kings 
to  the  Emperor.  All  this  hierarchy,  with  the  underlying 
conception  of  the  '  monarchy '  of  one  God,  Christianity 
swept  away.  '  Simple,  unskilled  people,'  writes  Tertullian, 
'  hurl  in  our  teeth  that  we  preach  two  gods  or  three  gods. 
.  .  .  We,  say  they,  maintain  the  monarchy.*  Tertullian 
was  speaking  of  Christian  laymen ;  but  the  reference 
might  have  been  extended  to  the  heathen,  some  of  whom, 
as  we  have  seen,  maintained  the  monarchy  by  means  of 
a  theology  of  '  daemons,'  partly  human  and  partly  divine. 
Others,  for  instance  Porphyry,  reasoned  more  boldly  still 
against  the  Christian  conception  :  "  Let  us  proceed  to 
inquire  about  the  monarchy  of  the  one  God,  and  the  joint 
rule  of  these  deities  who  are  worshipped.  ...  A  monarch 
is  not  one  who  is  alone,  but  one  who  rules  alone  over 
subjects  of  kindred  nature  with  himself ;  as  the  Emperor 
Hadrian,  for  instance,  who  was  a  monarch  not  because  he 
stood  alone,  or  because  he  ruled  cattle  or  sheep,  but  because 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  76 

he  was  king  over  human  beings  of  Hke  nature  with  his 
own."  ^  In  the  same  strain  Caecilius  complained  that  the 
Christians  made  the  heavens  a  wilderness  and  a  solitude 
with  their  *  one  god,  lonely  and  forsaken,'  the  unutterable 
isolation  and  aloofness  of  whose  position  in  heaven  seemed 
to  the  Greek  miad  an  "  atheistic "  impossibility.  But 
Caecilius  overlooked  that  this  '  lonely  God  '  had  given  place 
in  Christian  thought  to  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

While  Monarchianism  thus  failed  to  appeal  to  the  Greek 
mind,  as  in  fact  the  Monotheism  of  the  Jews  had  failed 
in  previous  centuries,  it  led  within  the  Church  to  serious 
difficulties.  Those  who  exaggerated  the  '  monarchy  '  were 
faced  with  the  problem  of  the  deity  of  the  Redeemer. 
To  those  who  held  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  which  Mon- 
archianism tended  to  displace,  this  had  presented  no  real 
difficulty.  But  any  abandonment  of  this  solution  drove 
men  to  attempt  another  conception,  the  recognition,  for 
instance,  that  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  was  a  creation 
or  manifestation  of  God  in  time.  One  class,  the  "  dynamic 
Monarchians  "  as  they  have  been  called,  saved  the  '  mon- 
archy '  by  resolving  the  deity  of  Christ  into  the  gift  of 
God  bestowed  upon  the  man  Jesus,  a  view  practically 
identical  with  that  which  in  later  times  was  known  as 
Adoptionism.2  The  beginnings  of  this  doctrine  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  always  a  favourite 
work  in  the  Roman  Church,  of  which  Hermas  had  been  a 
member,  and  of  which,  according  to  a  somewhat  doubtful 
statement,  his  brother  Pius  was  the  bishop.^  In  this 
school  the  most  important  name  was  Paul  of  Samosata, 
bishop  of  Antioch  (c.  260),  a  high  political  officer  of  Queen 
Zenobia  of  Palmyra.  With  Paul  the  main  thought  is 
the  'divine  ascent.'  {avtaS^v)  of  the  man  Jesus  to  Godlike 
honour  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Logos  as  His  '  inner  man,' 

1  Macarius  Magnes,  Apocritica,  iv.  20.  2  Infra,  pp.  76,  86,  145. 

•  A.D.  140-165.  The  chronology  and  Christology  of  Hermas  is,  however, 
very  doubtful.     On  Hermas,  see  Bigg,  Origins  of  Christianity,  chap.  viii. 


76    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

a  view  in  fatal  antagonism  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Kenosis. 
The  founder  of  the  school  was  apparently  a  '  learned  * 
currier  called  Theodotus,  who  about  the  year  190  preached 
at  Rome  that  superhuman  power — Theodotus  refuses  to 
own  that  this  was  '  deity ' — was  conferred  upon  Jesus  at 
His  baptism.  It  is  worth  note  that  the  followers  of  Theo- 
dotus, according  to  Eusebius,  were  much  given  to  higher 
criticism  and  mathematics,  and  eschewed  all  allegorical 
methods  of  interpretation.  They  favoured  Aristotle  rather 
than  Plato.  But  at  that  time  the  standpoint  of  all  edu- 
cated Christians  save  the  Antiochenes  was  Platonism. 

The  danger  of  dynamic  Monarchianism  is  plain  ;  it  in- 
evitably lowers  the  claims  of  Jesus.  Between  it  and  the 
current  heathen  conceptions  of  theophanies  and  apotheosis 
there  was  little  difference  save  one  of  degree.  But  differ- 
ences which  depend  on  degree  are  always  unstable.  In 
time  the  result  must  have  been  the  degeneration  of  Christ 
into  a  subordinate  God,  a  superior  Hercules  or  Prometheus  : 
redemption  would  have  become  a  temporary  cleansing  of 
the  Augean  stables,  not  an  eternal  fact  in  the  heart  of  God. 
Over  against  all  such  forms  of  Adoptionism  the  Church  was 
bound  to  assert  the  eternal  Sonship  of  the  pre-existent 
Christ  as  the  only  safeguard  of  its  truths.  After  the  close 
of  the  third  centuiy  no  other  Christology  was  possible  in 
the  Church,  and  in  the  fourth  century  it  found  scientific 
expression  in  the  formula  of  Athanasius  :  Aoyos  o/aooiVio?. 
One  practical  result  of  Adoptionism  was  the  omission  in 
all  the  symbols  of  the  Church  of  reference  to  the  baptism 
of  Christ.  Experience  had  shown  that  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  safeguard  it  from  docetic  interpretation. 

"  Dynamic  Monarchianism  "  was  so  manifestly  on  a  plane 
with  the  old  heathenism  that  it  can  hardly  have  been  a 
serious  difficulty,  at  any  rate  until  in  the  fourth  century 
it  reappeared  in  the  more  subtle  form  of  Arianism.  An- 
other class  of  Monarchians  was  more  dangerous.  These 
saved  the  *  monarchy  *  by  resolving  the  deity  of  Jesus  into 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  77 

one  mode  or  incorporation  of  the  Father,  who  Himself 
was  born  and  died.  Of  these  Patripassians  or  ModaUstic 
Monarchians  the  most  noted  leader  was  Sabellius,  the 
earliest  Noetus  (fl.  220),  and  Praxeas  (fl.  210) — unless  indeed 
these  two  are  one,  masquerading  under  different  names — 
the  latter  a  stout  opponent  of  Montanism,  who,  in  the 
caustic  phrase  of  Tertullian,  '  did  two  jobs  for  the  devil 
at  Rome.  He  drove  out  prophecy  and  introduced  heresy. 
He  put  to  flight  the  Paraclete  and  crucified  the  Father.' 
In  the  conception  of  the  Atonement  set  forth  by  the  Patri- 
passians there  is  none  of  the  poverty  of  the  Dynamic 
Monarchians.  But  to  maintain,  as  did  Noetus,  that  such 
a  doctrine  '  glorified  Christ '  by  upholding  His  com- 
plete deity,  shows  a  curious  blindness  to  its  ultimate  effect. 
What  this  was  became  manifest  when  the  logic  of  Sabellius 
(c.  198-217)  resolved  the  Trinity  into  three  different  phases 
or  functions  under  which  the  one  divine  essence  manifests 
itself — three  energies  in  one  hypostasis.  Such  a  view  is, 
of  course,  fatal  to  the  reality  of  the  Incarnation,  or  to  the 
existence  in  Christ  of  a  human  soul.  It  is  consequently 
destructive  of  the  conception  brought  out  in  the  Hebrews 
of  the  indissoluble  union  of  deity  and  humanity  in  the 
ascended  Christ.  Sabellianism  by  thus  refusing  to  recog- 
nise the  Trinity,  save  as  a  mere  category  or  form  in  ex- 
perience, in  reality  robs  experience  of  all  its  sources  of 
consolation.  This  deeper  note  the  Church  rescued  when, 
as  the  result  of  the  whole  controversy,  it  insisted  that  Christ 
must  be  both  true  God  and  true  man. 

The  history  of  Sabellianism  is  confused  and  fragmentary. 
But  it  does  not  appear  that  it  ever  obtained  a  hold  in  the 
Church.  As  an  organised  heresy  it  seems  rapidly  to  have 
perished.  Nevertheless,  owing  to  a  curious  chapter  in 
ecclesiastical  history,  it  has  left  permanent  marks  upon 
Christian  thought,  as  well  as  upon  the  text  of  the  New 
Testament.^  For  a  whole  generation,  in  spite  of  the  oppo- 
1  e.g.  fwvoyeviis  vlbs  for  Beds  in  John  i.  18. 


78    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [cH. 

sition  of  TertuUian  and  Hippolytus,  Modalism  in  a  moder- 
ate form  was  the  favourite  doctrine  at  Rome,  possibly 
because  of  the  sympathies  between  Stoicism,  the  fashion- 
able creed  of  Rome,  and  Modalism,  both  of  which  posited 
a  nominalist  logic.^  When  Origen  (about  215)  journeyed  to 
Rome,  he  seems  to  have  sided  with  Hippolytus.  To  the  great 
Alexandrian,  with  his  doctrine  of  the  subordination  of  the 
Son,  modalistic  Monarchianism  was  intolerable.  After  the 
defeat  of  Hippolytus  by  CalUstus,  Rome  retorted  (231-232) 
by  the  condemnation  of  Origen's  writings,  and  decided  that 
his  doctrine  of  subordination  led  to  Tri theism.  Another 
result  of  Sabellianism  was  even  more  noteworthy.  Hitherto, 
as  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  the  tendency  had  been  to 
emphasise  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Father.  For  this  cause 
theologians  in  the  East  had  looked  with  suspicion  on  the 
use  of  the  homoousios  formula.  According  to  the  common 
opinion,  they  had  secured  its  condemnation  at  the  council 
of  Antioch  (268),  possibly  because  of  its  too  realistic  use 
by  Paul  of  Samosata.  By  placing  the  Three  Persons  on 
a  parallel  line,  if  we  may  so  speak,  instead  of  on  one  of 
economy  or  subordination,  Sabellius  prepared  the  way 
both  for  the  Athanasian  and  the  Augustinian  Christology, 
including  the  definite  suioption  into  the  creed  of  the  West 
of  the  homoousian  formula. 

Theological  opinion  rarely  develops  by  moving  in  straight 
lines.  It  progresses  rather  in  a  series  of  actions  and  re- 
actions, by  the  strife  of  which  another  step  forward  is  taken. 
Of  this  we  have  an  example  in  the  reaction  of  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria  (247-251)  against  Sabellianism.  In  his  anxiety 
to  guard  the  distinct  personality  of  the  Son,  among  other 
incautious  statements  he  used  a  phrase  that  later  became 
a  watchword  of  Arianism — '  the  Son  did  not  exist  before 
He  was  begotten  * — and  denied  the  homoousios.     For  this 

1  See  Harnack,  H.D.  iii.  p.  56  n.  That '  Father'  and  'Son '  are  relative  or 
accidental  attributes  is  really  Nominalism.  According  to  TertuUian,  the 
Monarchians  contended  that  the  '  word '  is  '  only  voice  and  sound.' 


III.]  THE  PEKSON  OF  CHRIST  79 

reason  he  was  condemned  by  his  namesake  the  bishop  of 
Rome  (259-268),  who  once  more  laid  stress  on  the  unity  of 
God.  But  the  one  spoke  Greek  and  the  other  Latin,  and, 
in  consequence,  neither  seems  to  have  understood  the  other's 
use  of  technical  terms.  It  was  necessaiy  to  determine  more 
accurately  the  connotation  of  the  current  terms  of  theology. 
The  opportunity  for  this  was  given  at  Nicaea. 

Nor  must  we  overlook  the  importance  in  this  connection 
of  the  "  Arius  before  Arius,"  Lucian  of  Antioch  (fSll),  and 
the  Antiochene  school.  In  its  desire  for  formal  and  logical 
consistency  this  school  was  "  impelled  to  simplify  the 
Catholic  doctrine  by  dropping  one  element  in  Origen's 
teaching  (the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son),  and  pressing 
the  other  (subordinationism)  to  its  logical  consequences."  ^ 
In  thus  historically  linking  itself  on  with  the  controversies 
which  closed  the  third  century,  the  unity  of  God  and  the 
distinctness  of  the  Son's  personality,  lay  one  secret  of  the 
strength  of  Arianism. 

in 

The  greatest  of  all  the  Christological  controversies  was 
that  raised  by  Arius,  a  presbyter  of  Alexandria  and  pupil 
of  Lucian  of  Antioch.  The  details  of  this  struggle,  pro- 
longed for  over  a  century,  with  its  bewildering  variations 
and  cross-currents  and  its  miserable  scandals,  are  accessible 
in  every  text-book.  The  imposing  council  of  Nicaea 
(325),  with  the  great  figures  of  Constantine,  of  Ossius^  of 
Cordova  (b.  256),  of  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  (260-340),  above 
all  of  the  heroic  young  presbyter  of  Alexandria,  Athanasius, 
are  set  forth  at  large  in  all  histories,  as  are  also  the  Arian 
reactions,  especially  in  court  circles,  which  followed  the  first 
triumph  of  the  faith.  It  must  suffice  that  we  note  the 
inner  meaning  of  the  whole  controversy,  the  results  of 
which  we  possess  summed  up  in  a  symbol  known  as  the 

1  Ottley,  op.  cit.  i  p.  307  ;  Gwatkin,  op.  cit.  pp.  15,  16  ;  Harnack,  H.D.  It. 
p.  3  ff.  2  For  name,  see  infra,  p.  98  n. 


80    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Nicene  (Niceno-Constantinopolitan)  Creed.  This  famous 
symbol  would  appear,  however,  to  be  more  strictly  an 
edition  of  the  yet  older  Baptismal  Creed  of  Jerusalem, 
enlarged  by  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  somewhere  about  the  year 
362,  with  Nicene  corrections,  and  ultimately  attributed  to 
the  Constantinopolitan  council  of  381.^ 

When  looked  at  carefully  the  meaning  of  the  council  of 
Nicaea  is  plain.  As  Carlyle,  certainly  no  prejudiced  ob- 
server, puts  it :  "If  Arianism  had  won,  Christianity  would 
have  dwindled  into  a  legend."  The  question  at  issue  was 
whether  two  created  and  subordinate  gods,  holding  their 
existence  precariously,  durante  beneplacito  of  the  Father, 
very  little  different  from  the  philosophical  triad  or  duad  of 
Philo,  Plotinus,  and  the  Neoplatonists,  should  be  interposed 
between  the  deity  and  mankind.  For  in  plain  English 
that  is  really  the  meaning  of  the  Arian  formula  as  regards 
Christ — /yi/oTc  ovK  tJv,  '  there  was  when  He  was  not ' — with 
its  necessary  consequences  as  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  spite 
of  all  refinements  about  leaving  out  the  concept  of  time 
and  the  rest.  The  philosophers,  with  their  rationalistic 
arguments  from  the  human  to  the  divine,  and  their  con- 
ception of  a  Logos  centred  in  creation,  were  in  favour  of  the 
affirmative  ;  the  great  mass  of  earnest  believers  in  favour 
of  the  negative.  The  issue  was  the  defeat  of  the  philo- 
sophers, much  to  the  surprise  of  Arius.  For  Arius  was  no 
dehberate  unbeliever.  He  could  rightly  claim  that  many 
passages  of  Scripture  were  capable  of  interpretation  such 
as  to  prove  his  argument ;  and  that,  moreover,  the  Fathers 
of  Alexandria  were  on  his  side.  He  could  adduce,  with 
some  justice,  the  support  of  the  Alexandrian  Dionysius. 
He  could  maintain  that  Origen's  doctrine  of  subordina- 
tion must  logically  issue  in  the  placing  of  Christ  among 
the  creations  of  the  One  God,  the  '  first-bom,'  it  is 
true,  of  all  creation,  but  none  the  less  a  creature.     He 

1  See  Hort,  Ttoo  Dissertations,  vp.  64, 138, 139  ;  Harnack.  H.D.  iv.  p.  98  n. 
It  displaced  the  original  Nicene  Creed  about  the  year  530. 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  81 

could  point  to  the  danger  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  deity,  unless  further  guarded,  would  lead  back  to 
polytheism. 

But,  in  spite  of  plausible  defence  of  his  doctrine  as  a 
fight  for  Monotheism,  the  common  consciousness  of  be- 
lievers saw  clearly  that  which  was  hidden  from  Arius  and 
the  philosophers,  because  of  what  Harnack  rightly  calls 
"  their  childish  satisfaction  in  the  working  out  of  empty 
syllogisms,"  that  such  a  doctrine  in  the  long  run  would  be 
fatal  to  Christianity,  and  was  really  an  accommodation  to 
heathen  conceptions.  Arius  did  not  see  that  his  doctrine 
issued  in  hopeless  contradictions.  Thus  Arius  maintained 
the  unity  of  God,  upon  which  in  his  cosmology  he  laid  such 
stress,  by  opening  the  door  in  his  theology  to  the  very 
polytheism  he  detested.^  He  did  away  with  the  Rock  of 
Ages  when  he  affirmed  that,  like  all  rational  creatures,  the 
Son  is  by  nature  capable  of  change — a  view  that  strikes  at 
every  basis  of  ethics.  By  making  a  chasm  between  Christ 
and  the  Divine  essence,  he  denied  that  Christ  was  the  full 
revelation  of  the  Father.  Thus  he  destroyed  the  con- 
viction of  the  Christian  world  that  in  Christ  man  had 
attained  to  unity  with  God  Himself.  "  Those  men  make 
merry  in  vain  who  think  there  was  but  an  iota  of  difference 
between  the  contending  parties  at  Nicaea,  or  that  it  was 
a  strife  about  terms.  The  deepest  things  of  the  Christian 
life  were  at  stake.  For  Athanasius  belonged  to  that 
small  class  of  men  in  the  Church  who  have  ever  sent  new 
life  coursing  through  its  veins.  He  was  of  the  company  of 
Paul  and  Augustine,  of  Luther  and  Bunyan.  He  stood 
forth  at  Nicaea  as  the  exponent  of  the  deeper  soul  in  every 
man's  soul,  for  in  him  was  seen  a  man  whose  deep  spiritual 
needs  had  made  him  cry  aloud  for  the  living  God,  and  who 
then  declared  that  in  Christ  this  need  had  been  met.  His 
whole  intense  spiritual  experience  stood  to  affirm  that  it 
was  no  delegate  of  the  Most  High,  no  matter  how  august, 

1  Harnack,  HI),  iv.  p.  40  flF. 
F 


82    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

that  had  met  him  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  pardoned  his 
sins,  and  filled  him  with  new  life,  but  very  God  of  very  God  ; 
and  it  was  with  a  view  to  this  central  experience  that  he 
accepted  a  term  that  passed  beyond  Scripture,  and  affirmed 
of  the  Son  that  He  was  of  one  substance  with  the  Father. 
Terms  were  of  little  moment,  and  probably  Athanasius 
cared  little  about  them  ;  the  fact  was  everything,  and  the 
terms  only  had  a  value  if  they  did  justice  to  the  facts  of  a 
profound  experience."  ^ 

The  confident  appeal  which  the  Nicene  symbol  thus 
makes  to  the  facts  of  spiritual  experience  is  further  verified 
if  we  turn  to  that  larger  experience  which  we  call  history. 
At  first  Arianism  with  its  easy  reduction  of  Christ  to  a 
demi-god,  with  its  popular  methods  of  appeal,  including 
much  use  of  songs  (^aActa),  found  a  quick  response  among 
the  heathen,  as  well  as  among  the  thousands  of  nominal 
converts  to  Christianity.  For  the  barbarians  it  was  a  half- 
way halting-place  in  their  conversion  from  paganism.  As 
such,  Arianism  had  its  mission.  When  that  was  accom- 
plished, it  vanished.  For  just  as  the  Church  was  driven, 
one  might  almost  say  in  spite  of  herself,  to  eradicate  the 
Arian  taint,  so  "  sooner  or  later  every  Arian  nation  had  to 
purge  itself  of  heresy  or  vanish  from  the  earth.  Even  the 
distant  Visigoths  were  forced  to  see  that  Arians  could  not 
hold  Spain.  ...  Of  continental  Teutons  the  Franks  alone 
escaped  the  plague  of  Arianism.  It  was  in  the  strength  of 
orthodoxy  that  they  drove  the  conquerors  of  Rome  before 
them  on  the  field  of  Vougl6,  and  brought  the  green  stan- 
dard of  the  Prophet  to  a  halt  upon  the  Loire."  ^  As  in 
secular  history,  so  also  in  sacred.  Arianism  has  again  and 
again  in  diverse  forms  laid  its  spell  on  the  thoughtful.  But 
since  its  capture  of  the  barbarians  it  has  never  succeeded  in 
obtaining  the  allegiance  of  the  many,  while  the  congrega- 

1  Professor  Armitag e,  op.  cit.  p.  848. 

•  Owatkin,  op.  cU.  p.  264.    Cf.  Foakes- Jackson  in  Hastings'  B.R.B.  L 
p.  784. 


Ill]  THE  PEKSON  OF  CHRIST  88 

tions  which  have  embraced  it  have  for  the  most  part 
withered  away. 

Some  explanation  is  necessary  of  the  profound  hold  of 
Arianism  upon  the  East.  In  the  West,  Arianism  never 
made  headway  in  the  Church  itself.  The  Western  bishops 
at  the  council  of  Sardica  (Sophia  in  Bulgaria,  343-344) 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  efforts  of  the  Eastern 
bishops  to  amend  the  Nicene  symbol.  In  the  split  which 
followed  in  the  council  itself  we  see  the  beginning  of  the 
final  separation.  In  part  this  refusal  was  due  to  the  lesser 
interest  of  the  West  in  subtle  refinement.  The  West  with 
its  tendency,  so  characteristic  of  the  Roman,  to  view  dogma 
from  the  standpoint  of  administration  rather  than  intel- 
lectualism,  worked  outward  from  life  and  experience  to 
theory.  The  East,  constructing  its  a  'priori  schemes,  de- 
stroyed the  very  experiences  which  the  scheme  was  called 
in  to  explain.  But  the  victory  of  orthodoxy  in  the  West 
must  be  traced,  in  a  special  degree,  to  the  clear,  simple 
teaching  of  Tertullian.  For  Tertullian  had  definitely 
turned  the  thought  of  the  West  from  the  splendid  but 
shadowy  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  so  dear  to  the  more  philo- 
sophical East,  to  the  clear,  definite  conception  of  the  Son 
of  God,  with  its  emphasis  of  distinct  personality.  When, 
therefore,  Athanasius,  as  the  real  fruit  of  his  speculation, 
dwells  on  the  Christ  centred  in  salvation,  instead  of,  as 
Origen  and  the  Apologists,  on  the  Logos  working  in  creation, 
the  West  was  prepared.  But  in  the  Eastern  Church,  with 
its  strong  attachment  to  the  philosophy  of  4:he  Logos, 
Nicaea  was  rather  a  surprise  victory  won  by  the  clear 
thinking  of  the  minority  than  the  deliberate  expression  of 
general  conviction. 

IV 

In  the  Nicene  Creed  we  find  two  remarkable  expres- 
sions as  to  our  Lord's  human  nature,  all  the  more  remark- 
able because  of  their  repetition  :  *  Who  was  incarnate,'  and 


84    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

*  became  man.'  But  the  council  was  so  absorbed  in 
protecting  the  true  deity  of  Christ  that  it  failed  to 
guard  against  the  possible  errors  that  might  creep  in 
as  regards  the  Incarnation  and  manhood.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Arian  heresy  was  just  as  harmful  with 
reference  to  these  truths  as  to  the  true  '  deity.'  Its 
tendency  was  to  render  a  human  soul  in  Jesus  unnecessary, 
to  view  the  Incarnation  as  merely  the  '  taking  flesh ' 
by  an  indefinitely  great  though  not  infinite  Logos.  The 
Church  soon  found  that  it  was  as  necessary  for  it  to 
assert  the  homoousios  with  reference  to  humanity,  as 
it  had  been  necessary  to  assert  it  with  reference  to 
deity.  The  latter  was  needful,  because  no  true  revelation 
of  love  could  come  from  a  God  who,  if  Arius  was  right, 
stood  aloof  for  ever  from  the  world.  The  former  was 
equally  necessary ;  if  mankind  was  not  to  lose  its 
sense  of  the  dignity  of  humanity  by  a  theory  of  the  In- 
carnation which  refused  to  allow  that  the  Son  of  Man 
possessed  a  human  soul. 

Controversy  on  this  matter  was  begun  by  a  zealous 
defender  of  the  Nicene  symbol.  Apollinaris,  bishop  of 
Laodicea  (t390),  in  his  defence  of  Christ's  deity,  and  in  his 
desire  to  represent  Christ's  human  nature  as  impersonal, 
sacrificed  the  integrity  of  His  manhood.  His  intention  was 
to  safeguard  the  character  of  the  Redeemer  from  the  possi- 
biUty  of  change  or  fall.  The  Incarnation,  viewed  i.e.  as  the 
union  of  God  and  man,  had  been  eternal  in  the  Logos. 

*  The  Lord  from  heaven,'  who  bore  within  Himself,  so  to 
speak,  the  potency  of  the  Incarnation,  brought  with  Him 
His  heavenly  humanity,  the  Incarnation  being  merely,  as 
with  the  Arians,  the  taking  flesh  and  an  animal  soul.  In 
the  psychology  of  Apollinaris,  who  followed  the  threefold 
classification  to  which  Plato  had  given  currency,  Jesus 
Christ  thus  lacked  a  human  soul  (vovs).  This  further  in- 
volved the  lack  of  any  real  human  will.  Now,  whatever 
views  may  be  held  as  to  the  psychology  of  both  Apollinaris 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  86 

and  his  opponents,  this  much  is  certain.  By  the  *  soul '  of 
man  both  sides  aUke  intended  the  noblest  part,  the  essential 
fact  in  humanity  itself.  If  this  were  lacking,  then,  as  the 
Catholic  writers,  Gregory  Nazianzen  and  others,  com- 
plained, the  Incarnation  was  incomplete.  And  lacking, 
according  to  ApoUinaris,  it  certainly  was,  in  spite  of  his 
subtle  argument  that  all  human  souls  were  in  a  way 
adumbrations  of  the  Logos,  that  man's  nature  pre-existed 
in  God.  To  this  extent  therefore — for  there  is  much  in 
his  teaching  that  is  still  obscure — we  may  join  with  the 
second  council  of  Constantinople  (381)  in  its  condemnation 
of  ApoUinarian  doctrines.  One  outcome  of  the  contro- 
versy would  appear  to  have  been  the  formulation  of  the 
symbol  known  as  the  Athanasian  Creed.  This  seems,  in 
part,  to  have  had  its  origin  in  the  opposition  of  southern 
Gaul  to  ApoUinarian  doctrine. 

Half  a  century  after  ApoUinaris  the  battle  was  reopened. 
The  new  controversy  was  an  attempt  to  answer  the  pro- 
blem ApoUinaris  had  raised,  but  which  neither  he  nor  his 
opponents,  Gregory  of  Nyssa  and  Gregory  Nazianzen,  had 
answered,  of  the  unity  of  Christ's  Person.  The  author  of 
this  new  heresy  was  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  ;  its  foremost 
advocate  Nestorius  (fl.  431),  the  patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople. Theodore  (350-428)  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
school  of  Antioch.  The  logical  method  of  this  school  was 
AristoteUan ;  its  chief  interest  in  anthropology.  The 
tendency,  therefore,  of  its  somewhat  critical  and  literal 
theology  was  to  fix  attention  on  the  human  element  in 
Christ,  as  set  forth  in  the  simple  Gospel  narratives.  The 
service  which  in  this  matter  the  Antiochenes  rendered  to 
the  Church,  by  insistence  on  the  historical  Christ,  was  un- 
fortunately neutralised  by  their  making  the  bond  between 
the  human  and  divine  merely  external,  an  exaggeration 
of  the  moral  discipline  whereby  our  High  Priest  was  '  made 
perfect,'  instead  of  vital  and  permanent.  Vexed  with  the 
popular  custom,  defended  by  Gregory  Nazianzen,  of  calling 


86    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [oh. 

the  Virgin  Mary  deoroKos,^  Nestorius,  following  Theodore, 
contended  that  '  she  only  gave  birth  to  a  man  in  whom  the 
union  with  the  Logos  had  its  beginning,  but  was  incomplete 
until  His  baptism.'  Christ  was  thus  not '  God  *  but '  God- 
bearer  '  (6€0(f)6pos),  another  form  of  Adoptionism.  The  con- 
denmation  of  Nestorius  in  his  absence,  by  the  synod  of 
Ephesus  (431)  under  the  lead  of  the  passionate  Cyril, 
metropolitan  of  Alexandria  (412-444),  was  not  the  end  of  the 
heresy.  An  energetic  Nestorian  Church,  in  its  missionary 
zeal,  carried  the  condemned  tenets  first  to  Edessa,  and  then, 
on  the  suppression  of  that  school  in  489,  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Persia,  India,  China — as  the  tablets  at  Si-ngan-fu 
(636-781)  bear  evidence  ^ — alike  witnessed  their  activity. 
From  the  eleventh  century,  until  almost  blotted  out  by 
Tamerlane,  the  Nestorian  Church  was  the  largest  Christian 
body  in  the  world,  whose  patriarch  at  Bagdad  was  acknow- 
ledged by  twenty-five  metropolitans.  On  the  conquest  of 
Persia  and  the  East  by  the  Muslim,  Nestorianism  was 
thrown  into  an  alliance,  by  no  means  unfriendly,  with  the 
new  faith.  To  this  we  trace  the  rise  in  Mohammedan 
Spain  in  medieval  times  of  a  new  form  of  this  Nestorian 
doctrine  to  which  the  title  of  Adoptionism  is  more  strictly 
applied.' 

More  deadly  than  Nestorianism  was  the  Monophysite 
peril,  a  heresy  as  dangerous  to  Christianity  as  Arianism 
itself.  Its  author,  Eutyches,  an  old  unknown  monk,  was 
its  nominal  founder  because  of  a  few  plain  sentences  in 
which,  exaggerating  the  tendencies  and  formulae  of  Cyrus, 
he  maintained  that  after  the  Incarnation  there  was  but  one 
nature  in  Christ,  the  fusion  of  the  two  natures  into  one 
humanised  Logos  or  *  deified '  man.  With  Eutyches  the 
deity  completely  overshadowed  the  manhood.    The  con- 

»  The  English  translation,  Mother  of  God,'  puts  the  emphasis  in  the  wrong 
place.  It  would  be  better  'who  gives  birth  to  God.'  Glover,  Conjiict  of 
Religions,  p.  21,  points  out  that  "the  land  which  introduced  the  Mother  of 
the  Gods  to  the  Roman  world  gave  the  name  ofdtorbKO%  to  the  Church." 

*  S«e  Bury'i  Gibbon,  vol.  v.  App.  7.  •  /V»"«»  P-  l^a 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  87 

demnation  of  Eutyches  at  Constantinople  (448),  his  justi- 
fication at  the  violent  '  Robber  '  Council  at  Ephesus  (449), 
was  followed  by  further  condemnation  at  the  fourth 
Ecumenical  Council  at  Chalcedon  (October  451),  as  also  in 
the  '  Tome '  in  which  Leo  i.,  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  age, 
condemned  Nestorius  and  Eutyches,  and  at  the  same  time 
advanced  the  olaims  of  the  Roman  primacy.  In  his  de- 
finition, which  was  adopted  at  Chalcedon,  Leo  pointed  out 
with  great  clearness  that  the  true  faith  is  always  of  the 
nature  of  a  via  media  between  conflicting  errors.^ 

By  the  adoption  of  this  definition  the  Christological 
controversy  reached  its  logical  conclusion.  The  perman- 
ence of  Christ's  manhood  was  definitely  asserted,  though 
the  council  "  failed  to  recognise  the  ethical  aspects  of 
Christ's  humanity  as  the  unique  archetype  of  manhood — 
a  point  which  had  held  such  a  prominent  place  in  the 
thought  of  earher  writers  like  Irenaeus."  ^  But  not  with- 
out long,  dreary  years  of  debate  could  the  Eastern  Church 
be  induced  to  accept  the  Western  Christology.  Mono- 
physitism,  though  formally  banished,  was  not  driven  out. 
Certain  sects  in  the  East  to  this  day  still  make  Monophy- 
sitism  their  main  tenet,  with,  at  first,  Antioch,  then  after- 
wards Baghdad  as  their  patriarchate — the  Jacobites^  of 
Syria,  the  Copts  and  Abyssinians,  the  Armenians  and 
Maronites.  Even  in  orthodox  circles,  both  in  East  and  West, 
the  real  humanity  of  Jesus  was  for  long  ages  a  conviction 
of  the  study,  not  a  working  belief.  In  Cyril  of  Alexandria 
and  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  for  instance,  "  the  Redeemer's  man- 
hood ceases  to  have  independent  existence  :  it  is  trans- 
formed and  *  deified '  to  a  point  which  makes  it  only 
nominally  ' consubstantial'  with  ours."  *  The  consequences 
of   this   practical   Monophysitism   were  most  disastrous. 

1  The  keywords  of  the  Chalcedonian  formula  were :  as  to  the  two  natures, 
dtriryxf^Tws  without  commixture,  drp^irTws  without  conversion ;  as  to  the 
One  Person,  ddiaipirus  nndividedly,  dxwp^CTWs  inseparably. 

2  Ottley,  op.  cit.  ii.  p.  109.  •  So  called  from  the  monk  Jacob  Baradai. 
4  Ibid.  p.  88. 


88    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

"  To  its  secret  prevalence  in  the  Church  is  due  much  of  the 
degradation  of  Christian  worship  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
cultus  of  the  Madonna,  of  the  Bambino,  and  of  wonder- 
working images,  is  traceable  to  the  feeling  that  Christ's 
divinity  had  absorbed  His  humanity  altogether."  ^ 

To  the  same  lack  of  any  sense  of  the  real  humanity  we 
must  trace  the  Monothelite  controversy  formally  con- 
demned at  Rome  in  649,  and  at  Constantinople  in  680. 
To  claim  that  in  Jesus  Christ  there  is  but  one  will  is  to 
take  from  Him  the  very  essence  of  humanity.  Poor  and 
inadequate  as  the  language  in  which  John  of  Damascus 
attempted  to  sum  up  the  Catholic  position  may  be,  yet, 
after  all,  he  attained  the  right  end.  His  definition  of  the 
relation  of  the  human  to  the  divine  nature  in  the  unity  of 
the  Person  as  enhypostatic  or  anhypostatic — in  other 
words,  the  doctrine  of  an  impersonal  human  nature  in 
Christ — is  not  more  satisfactory  as  an  explanation  than 
most  definitions  of  ultimate  facts.  But  it  has  this  merit 
at  least,  perhaps  a  negative  merit,  that  it  does  not  lead  us 
away  from  the  fact  itself. 

With  the  settlement  of  the  Christological  controversy 
the  contribution  of  the  Eastern  Church  to  Christian  doctrine 
became  practically  exhausted.  The  Eastern  Church  had 
lost  its  thinkers.  In  383,  according  to  Socrates,  the  Em- 
peror Theodosius  fell  back  upon  tradition  for  the  settle- 
ment of  all  disputes.  In  John  of  Damascus  (t754),  the 
last  of  the  great  names,  we  find  all  the  worst  faults  of  the 
Western  schoolmen.  Antioch  and  Alexandria,  for  so  many 
centuries  the  seats  of  progressive  Christian  schools,  were 
captured  by  the  Arabs.  The  life  of  the  Byzantine  Church, 
even  when  spared  by  the  Muslim,  was  stifled  by  political 
and  spiritual  despotism,  ruined  by  corruption  and  super- 
stition. In  place  of  the  soaring  thoughts  of  Origen,  Basil, 
the  Gregories,  Athanasius,  and  Chrysostom  we  have  the  long 
and  bitter  Iconoclastic  controversy  (726  ff.).     The  great 

1  Foakes- Jackson  in  Cambridge  Theological  Euays,  p.  490. 


III.]  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  89 

Emperor  Leo  the  Syrian, ^  stung  by  the  Muslim  taunt  that 
the  Christians  worshipped  idols,  and  desirous  of  infusing 
new  life  into  the  Empire  by  correcting  the  effete  sentimen- 
talism  of  Oriental  Christianity,  demanded  that  images 
should  only  be  used  as  architectural  ornaments.  The 
common  people,  goaded  by  persecution  and  superstition, 
rose  in  defence  of  these  relics  of  paganism  or  religious  child- 
hood. Such  thought  as  survived  in  the  Eastern  Church 
was  confined  to  the  monasteries,  and  there,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  *  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,'  ^  assumed  the  form  of 
mystic  quietism.  With  the  conversion  of  Russia  (988) 
the  Eastern  Church  awoke  to  a  wider  life.  But  Russia, 
alone  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  owed  its  Christianity  to 
the  arbitrary  command  of  its  Tsar  Vladimir  rather  than 
to  the  usual  missionary  agencies.  Hence  the  distinctive 
feature  of  this  new  Slav  church  was  not  its  thought,  or  even 
its  orthodoxy,  but  its  constant  emphasis  of  an  unbending 
nationalism.  In  the  East  religion  and  nationality  are 
identical ;  hence  unity  of  religion  is  the  basal  principle  of 
the  state,  and  its  easiest  definition.  But  though  the  conse- 
quent political  importance  of  the  Eastern  Church  cannot 
be  exaggerated,  its  contributions  to  Christian  thought  after 
John  of  Damascus  must  be  dismissed  as  almost  valueless. 
Like  the  Rhine,  the  river,  once  deep,  clear,  and  life-giving, 
had  ended  in  the  mud-swamps. 

1  Commonly  but  mistakenly  called  *  the  Isanrian. 
*  Infra,  p.  163  £. 


90    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ctt. 


CHAPTER    IV 


THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME 


Argument 

§  I.  The  Latin  influence — Contrast  of  East  and  West — 
Emphasis  of  law — Legal  views  of  the  Atonement — 
Concrete  ideas  of  the  Church — The  defects  of  the 
Latin  language pp.  91-95 

§  II.  The  place  and  importance  of  tradition — The  Apostles' 
Creed — Its  importance  as  a  Roman  symbol — Epistle 
of  Clement  —  Rome  and  the  apostolic  tradition — 
Western  administrators  and  Eastern  thinkers  .     pp.  95-98 

§  III.  The  protest  of  Montanism — Effect  of  its  suppression — 

The  rise  of  the  canon pp.  99-101 

§  IV.  Irenaeus  and  TertuUian— Their  importance— Doctrine 
of  tradition — The  Recapitulatio — Tertullian's  legal 
terminology  —  His  doctrine  of  the  Son  of  God — 
Cyprian— Importance  of— Causes  which  led  to  the 
growth  of  hiB  theories — The  rise  of  intolerance  .  pp.  102-109 


iv.J  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  81 


The  influence  of  the  Roman  world  upon  the  organisation 
of  the  Christian  Church,  especially  in  the  development  of 
the  papacy  and  of  a  territorial  episcopacy,  has  been  so 
profound  that  there  is  danger  lest  we  overlook  its  import- 
ance for  Christian  thought.  For  vast  as  was  the  influence 
of  the  Hellenic  spirit,  Roman  thought  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years  was  the  all-important  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Christian  philosophy  and  theology,  at  least 
in  the  Western  world.  To  say  this  is  but  to  state,  in  differ- 
ent words,  the  permanent  influence  upon  the  Western 
Church  of  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine,  in  whom  Roman 
thought  finds  its  highest  expression.  We  propose,  there- 
fore, to  consider,  first,  the  formative  factors  in  Roman 
thought  prior  to  St.  Augustine,  then  to  review  the  work 
and  influence  of  St.  Augustine  himself.  From  St.  Augus- 
tine we  pass  by  a  natural  transition  to  the  further  develop- 
ment of  thought  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

We  do  well  at  the  outset  to  define  the  special  bent  which 
the  Latin  genius  gave  to  Christianity.  To  state  roughly 
that  it  gave  it  organisation  would  scarcely  be  sufficient. 
For  organisation  in  itself  can  hardly  be  regarded  as 
"  thought."  Yet  the  organisation  which  the  Church  re- 
ceived, so  largely  under  the  influence  of  its  Roman  environ- 
ment, and  as  part  of  its  adaptation  to  the  polity,  public 
and  private,  of  the  Empire,  is  the  hall-mark,  so  to  speak, 
of  definite  tendencies  in  Latin  thinking,  which  as  much 
claim  recognition  as  the  more  abstract  methods  of  Hellen- 
ism. By  a  process  of  thought,  gradual  but  inevitable,  the 
Church  came  to  be  construed  in  terms  of  the  State. 


92    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

Tlie  Latin  genius  corresponds,  in  fact,  to  a  certain  clearly 
marked  movement  of  the  intellect.  "  There  will  ever 
exist,"  writes  Neander,  "  two  tendencies  of  the  theological 
mind,  of  which  while  the  one  will  seek  to  understand  the 
supernatural  element  of  Christianity  in  its  opposition  to 
the  natural,  the  other  will  endeavour  to  point  out  its  con- 
nection with  it.  The  one  will  seek  to  apprehend  the  super- 
natural and  super-rational  element  as  such  ;  the  other  will 
strive  to  apprehend  it  in  its  harmony  with  reason  and 
nature — to  portray  to  the  mind  the  supernatural  and 
super-rational  as  being  nevertheless  conformable  to  nature 
and  to  reason."  These  two  tendencies  characterised 
respectively  the  Greek  and  Latin  genius.^  The  construc- 
tive ideas  of  the  Greek  are  metaphysical ;  of  the  Latin, 
political.  The  Latin  sought  above  all  else  to  fit  facts  into 
their  ethical  or  social  bearings.  Hence  his  desire  to  test 
opinion  by  a  rule  of  faith,  fixed  and  secured  by  a  definite 
organisation.  For  speculation  he  had  an  instinctive  mis- 
trust. The  philosophy  of  the  West,  not  even  excepting 
Lucretius,  is  wholly  derivative.  The  Greek,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  ever  insisting  on  the  continuity  of  the  reve- 
lation, judging  opinion  from  within  by  its  harmony  with 
its  premises,  or  its  additions  to  gnosis.  Hence  the  love  of 
subtle  doctrinal  disputation,  at  times  becoming  a  malady. 
'  Every  comer  of  the  city,'  writes  Gregory  of  Nyssa  in  a 
striking  picture  of  Constantinople  during  the  Arian  contro- 
versy, *  is  full  of  men  who  discuss  incomprehensible  sub- 
jects ;  the  streets,  the  markets,  old  clothes  dealers,  money 
changers,  provision  merchants  all  alike.'  The  Latin  has 
given  us  the  Roman  Church  ;  the  Greek  the  Apologists 
and  Alexandrians.  The  creed  of  the  West — the  so-called 
Apostles'  Creed — is  the  terse  recital  of  historical  facts.  The 
creed  of  the  East — the  so-called  Nicene — is  full  of  subtle 
intellectualism.  The  West  is  Catholic,  the  stress  is  laid 
upon  extension  ;  the  East  is  Orthodox,  with  the  emphasis 
»  NeAnder,  Church  History  (ed.  Torrey),  ii.  p.  197. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  93 

upon  opinion.  With  the  East  faith  becomes  spiritual 
vision ;  with  the  West  it  is  primarily  assent  to  external 
authority. 

In  consequence  of  this,  in  the  Roman  genius  two  matters 
stand  out  prominently,  its  emphasis  of  law  and  its  rever- 
ence for  tradition.  To  the  Roman  conception  of  law,  and 
its  basal  principle  that  the  ordered  is  the  good,  we  owe 
really  the  Roman  power  of  organisation.  The  Greek  ideal 
of  highly  developed  social  atoms  seemed  lawless  to  the 
Roman.  Law  and  order  demanded  that  the  atoms  should 
be  bound  together  into  a  unity.  Thus  the  Greek  ttoAis 
became  the  Roman  State  ;  the  ecclesia  of  earlier  days,  the 
'  Catholic  '  Church  of  the  third  century.  '  Roman  '  and 
'  Catholic  '  had,  in  fact,  a  special  relation  to  each  other 
from  the  earliest  days.  Both  alike  connote  '  universaUty,' 
'  organisation,'  and  '  unity,'  and  such  lines  of  thought  as 
are  necessary  to  produce  these  fundamental  marks. 

One  of  the  chief  results  of  the  Roman  genius  for  law 
was  the  influence  exerted  upon  Western  conceptions  of 
truth.  In  the  words  of  an  eminent  writer  :  "  Theology 
became  permeated  with  forensic  ideas  and  couched  in 
forensic  language.  .  .  .  The  Western  Church  threw  itself 
into  a  new  order  of  disputes,  the  same  which  from  those 
days  to  this  have  never  lost  their  interest  for  any  family 
of  mankind  at  any  time  included  in  the  Latin  communion. 
The  nature  of  sin  and  its  transmission  by  inheritance, 
the  debt  owed  by  man  and  its  vicarious  satisfaction,  the 
necessity  and  sufficiency  of  the  Atonement,  above  all  the 
apparent  antagonism  between  Free  Will  and  the  Divine 
Providence,  these  were  the  points  which  the  West  began  to 
debate.  .  .  .  Almost  everybody  who  has  knowledge  enough 
of  Roman  Law  to  appreciate  the  Roman  penal  system  ; 
the  Roman  theory  of  obligations  established  by  contract 
and  debit ;  the  Roman  view  of  debts,  and  of  the  modes 
of  incurring,  extinguishing,  and  transmitting  them  ;  the 
Roman  notion  of  the  continuance  of  individual  existence 


94    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

by  universal  succession — may  be  trusted  to  say  whence 
arose  the  frame  of  mind  to  which  the  problems  of  Western 
theology  proved  so  congenial,  whence  came  the  phraseology 
in  which  these  problems  were  stated,  and  whence  the 
description  of  reasoning  employed  in  their  solution."  ^ 

As  regards  the  Atonement,  the  Eastern  Church  looked 
to  the  Divine  Immanence  as  the  answer  to  its  questions. 
Hence  its  emphasis  of  the  Incarnation.  But  one  result 
of  the  legal  attitude  in  the  Latin  Church  was  that  the  whole 
stress  of  its  thought  was  thrown  upon  the  death  of  Christ, 
and  not  upon  His  Incarnation.  The  Atonement  was 
looked  upon  as  almost  accidental,  certainly  no  necessary 
part  of  the  Divine  Nature,  as  distinct  from  the  duty  of  a 
Divine  Law-giver.  Regarded  thus  under  the  category 
chiefly  of  '  satisfaction,'  it  was  almost  limited  to  the  Cross, 
to  which  the  Incarnation  was  but  ancillary.  This  narrowed 
conception  was  further  assisted  by  the  juridical  attitude 
whereby  the  whole  race  was  treated  as  guilty  of  one  sin 
because  of  one  descent — a  system  of  ideas  that  borrowed 
its  terms  from  St.  Paul,  but  its  working  principles  from 
the  law  and  polity  of  Rome. 

After  the  adoption  of  Christianity  by  Constantine  as  the 
religion  of  the  State,  the  Roman  genius  further  demanded 
that  the  unity  of  the  Church  be  concrete,  a  visible  society 
with  visible  location,  headship,  and  terms  of  citizenship. 
To  imagine  otherwise  was  to  fall  back  upon  the  despised 
Greek  abstractions,  with  their  futile  *  bird-cities  *  in  cloud- 
land  and  their  unreaUsable  Platonic  republics.  Thus  the 
abstract  definition  which  the  Greeks  loved,  the  fruits  of 
which  in  the  development  of  theology  we  have  already 
studied,  became  with  the  Romans  concrete  determination 
of  the  relations  of  the  society  or  church — its  boundaries, 
government,  practice,  the  terms  of  admission  or  exclusion, 
the  nature  and  power  of  its  officers,  and  the  like.    The  out- 

1  Maine,  Ancient  Lavf,  p.  856.  Cf.  FalrUirn,  op.  eit.  pp.  108-109,  and  cf. 
in/ra,  c.  Til.  §  i. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  96 

come  of  all  this  in  the  growth  of  the  conception  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  with  its  territorial  episcopate,  its  fixed 
ritual,  its  graded  hierarchy,  its  head  centre  at  Rome,  and 
its  ordered  Monasticism,  is  a  familiar  story. 

At  the  outset  of  our  inquiry  it  is  well  to  notice  one  result 
of  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue.  The  abstract  ideas  so 
dear  to  the  Greek  were  abhorred  by  the  practical  Roman. 
As  a  rule,  he  had  no  terms  whereby  he  could  express  them. 
When,  therefore,  attempts  were  made  to  translate  for  the 
West  the  subtle  terms  in  which  the  fathers  of  the  East 
had  expressed  their  creed,  difficulty  and  serious  mistakes 
arose.  The  term  ovcrta,  for  instance,  should  have  been 
rendered  by  essentia,  an  abstract  word  that  the  Romans 
disliked.  So  substantia,  a  concrete  term  that  has  an  under- 
tone of  materialism,  unfortunately  took  its  place.  But  as 
substantia  was  really  the  translation  of  the  Greek  vTroo-rao-ts 
(hypostasis),  a  further  difficulty  was  introduced,  which  was 
only  met  by  the  use  of  a  legal  term,  persona.  Little  wonder 
that  the  theologians  of  East  and  West  misunderstood  each 
other  ;  they  too  often  used  words,  which  they  supposed  to 
be  equivalent,  in  contradictory  senses.  With  the  severance 
of  East  and  West  the  Latin  terms  alone  became  recognised 
in  the  West,  with  results  that  have  been  disastrous  for 
exact  thinking. 


The  struggle  with  Gnosticism  forced  the  Alexandrian 
Church  to  attempt  clearer  exposition  ;  it  drove  the  Western 
Church  back  upon  a  more  definite  statement  of  apostolic 
tradition  as  opposed  to  speculation.  Li  this  matter,  so 
momentous,  as  after  events  showed,  for  the  history  of  the 
whole  Church,  many  circumstances  predisposed  the  Roman 
congregation  to  take  the  lead.  Its  accepted  double  founda- 
tion by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  of  itself  gave  it  pre-eminence, 
to  say  nothing  of  its  importance  as  the  capital  of  the  world. 
By  an  early  date  also  the  Roman  Church  had  given  to  the 


96    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch, 

primitive  baptismal  formula  and  to  apostolic  tradition 
the  definiteness  of  a  creed  and  a  canon,  touchstones  to 
which  it  was  able  to  bring  all  heresies  and  difficulties. 
It  is  at  Rome  that  the  existence  of  a  canon  of  the  New 
Testament  can  first  be  definitely  traced,  as  we  see  in  the 
Muratorian  fragment.  The  Roman  symbol  also,  in  the 
main  substantially  the  same  as  that  now  known  as  the 
Apostles*  Creed,  was  in  existence  in  the  second  century, 
possibly  before  150,  certainly  before  Irenaeus. 

The  Apostles'  Creed  has  been  called,  not  without  justi- 
fication, "  the  simple  but  emphatic  protest  of  the  Church 
against  Gnostic  heresies."  ^  If  by  the  Church  we  mean  the 
Western  Church — for  this  creed  is  unknown  in  the  East — 
and  if  with  the  Gnostics  we  include  Marcion,  the  statement 
is  correct.  Its  first  clause  is  the  negation  of  Gnostic  dual- 
ism ;  while  the  simple  phrase,  *  His  only  Son  our  Lord,' 
sweeps  aside  all  aeons  and  emanations.  Its  affirmation 
of  *  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh '  is  in  opposition  to 
Marcion's  denial.  Finally,  docetism  is  absolutely  excluded 
by  the  simple  recital  of  the  facts  of  His  life,  and  by  the 
emphasis  of  the  completeness  of  His  death  in  the  addi- 
tion ("  Descended  into  Hades ")  made  at  Aquileia  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  fourth  century. 

The  advantage  for  the  Roman  Church  of  the  possession 
of  this  symbol  cannot  be  over-estimated.  Rome  was 
not  only,  as  Juvenal  tells  us,  the  cesspool  of  the  world  ; 
to  its  Church  all  heresies  turned,  if  only  in  the  hope  of 
capturing  the  metropolis  of  the  Empire.  Of  this  we  have 
illustrations  in  the  coming  to  Rome  of  Marcion  of  Sinope 
in  Pontus,  and  the  Gnostic  Valentinus  of  Egypt.  But 
against  the  rock  of  a  definite  confession  and  a  fixed  canon 
they  could  not  prevail.  Alexandria,  the  heart  of  the 
Eastern  Church,  in  the  great  struggles  of  the  second  century 
neither  possessed  a  formulated  creed,  nor  was  its  foun- 
dation by  St.  Mark  or  St.  Barnabas  either  historically 
1  Allen,  Continuity  of  Ohriatian  Thought,  p.  111. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  KOME  97 

certain,  nor,  if  proven,  such  as  entitled  its  traditions  to 
pre-eminence  and  obedience. 

We  see  the  consequences  of  these  Roman  advantages  in 
the  tendency  of  the  churches  of  East  and  West  to  refer 
their  difficulties  or  disputes  to  Rome  for  settlement  or 
advice.  Of  this  we  have  the  earliest  example  in  the  so- 
called  Epistle  of  Clement,  in  reality  a  reply  from  '  the  church 
that  sojourns  at  Rome  to  the  church  that  sojourns  at 
Corinth'  to  an  invitation  to  heal  a  somewhat  obscure 
dispute.  This  letter,  written  about  the  year  96,  bears 
unmistakably  the  marks  of  the  Roman  genius.  In  place 
of  speculation  we  have  a  wide  sweep  of  practical  Christian 
exhortation,  while  the  question  uppermost  in  the  writer's 
mind  is  that  of  obedience  to  the  properly  constituted 
officers  of  the  ^Church.  Such  claims  to  counsel  as  the 
Roman  Church  possesses  the  writer  bases  on  her  superior 
knowledge  of  '  the  ordinances  and  commandments  of  God,' 
and  on  her  adherence  to  '  the  canon  of  tradition.'  We  see 
this  tendency  further  developed  in  the  visits  to  Rome 
during  the  second  century  of  such  prominent  Eastern 
Christians  as  Hegesippus  (c.  151),  Polycarp  (c.  154),  and 
Origen  (c.  215),  as  well  as  in  the  efforts  of  the  Montanists 
to  obtain  recognition  from  Pope  Eleutherus.  In  the  case 
of  the  condemnation  of  Origen  the  decision  of  Rome  seems 
to  have  been  of  special  importance.  All  these  events  bear 
witness  to  a  widespread  anxiety  to  know  the  devotional 
standpoint  of  what  Origen  calls  '  the  very  old  Church,'  of 
the  metropolis.  This  culminated  in  the  statement  of 
Irenaeus  and  Tertullian,  in  his  pre-Montanist  days,  that 
agreement  with  the  Church  at  Rome  with  its  detailed  suc- 
cession of  bishops  was  the  best  safeguard  for  the  trans- 
mission of  the  apostolic  faith.^  By  the  end  of  the  second 
century  Victor  (tl97),  the  first  bishop  of  Rome  of  Latin 

1  Tertullian,  De  Praes.  32,  36;  Adv.  Marc.  4,  5;  Irenaeus,  iii.  3,  1-2. 
On  the  difficult  interpretation  of  this  last  (ad  hanc  enim  ecclesiam  propter 
potentiorem  principalitatem  necesse  est  omnem  couvenire  ecclesiam)  see 
Harnack,  H.n.  ii.  p.  157  n. 

G 


98    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     [ch. 

race,  definitely  advanced  claims  to  universal  headship. 
In  the  Quartodeciman  controversy  he  maintained  that 
every  congregation  which  failed  to  fall  in  with  the  Roman 
paschal  arrangement  was  thereby  excommunicated.  The 
action  of  Victor  was  imitated  by  his  successors,  especially 
CalUstus  (t223).  By  the  year  250  the  Roman  Church 
possessed  an  acknowledged  primacy,  though  whether  it 
was  not  the  primacy  of  the  city  and  church — '  a  presidency 
of  love  '  as  Ignatius  had  called  it — rather  than  of  its  bishop, 
may  well  be  questioned.  This  brief  sketch  of  a  movement, 
the  historic  consequences  of  which  are  as  certain  as  its 
validity  may  be  disputed,  will  show  the  forces  at  work  in 
the  West  which  produced  the  type  of  thought  associated 
with  the  Catholic  Church. 
*  As  the  type  of  thought,  so  the  type  of  man.  The  typical 
fathers  of  the  East  are  to  be  found  in  its  great  theologians, 
Clement,  Origen,  the  two  Gregories,  Athanasius,  Dionysius, 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia — to  name  the  leaders  in  a  long  line 
of  great  theologians.  The  typical  fathers  of  the  West  will 
be  found  among  its  lawyers  and  administrators,  Tertullian ; 
Cyprian,  the  great  prince-bishop,  as  we  may  well  call  him,  of 
Carthage  ;  Ossius^  of  Cordova,  the  friend  and  minister  of 
Constantino  ;  Ambrose  of  Milan,  whose  splendid  prelacy, 
especially  his  humiliation  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  set 
the  ideal  of  true  ecclesiastical  imperium  ;  Hilary  of  Aries  ; 
Leo  the  Great  and  Gregory  the  Great,  two  popes  whose  lofty 
deeds  raised  the  see  of  Rome  to  undisputed  pre-eminence  ; 
and  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  for  so  many  years  the  dictator 
of  Europe.  The  one  exception  at  first  sight  is  Augustine, 
who  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  practical  affairs. 
Yet,  as  we  shall  see  later,  no  one  so  powerfully  con- 
tributed to  the  organisation  both  of  the  Church  and  the 
world  upon  a  definite  ecclesiastical  and  political  basis  as 
St.  Augustine. 

»  For  OsBius.  insUad  of  the  Greek  form  Hosius  (=*0<rtot),  see  C.  H.  Turner 
In  Journal  of  Thed.  Studies,  Jan.  1911,  p.  276. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME 


ra 

The  hardening  process  whereby  the  liberty  of  the  spirit 
was  slowly  changed  into  a  rigid  Church  was  not  allowed  to 
proceed  without  protest.  Of  such  protests  the  chief  was 
Montanism,  a  movement  first  appearing  in  Phrygia,  a 
country  parts  of  which  were  only  nominally  incorporated  in 
the  Roman  system,  about  the  year  156.  After  years 
of  struggle  and  persecution  the  sect  was  finally  crushed  out 
by  Justinian,  the  last  members  of  it,  in  their  despair,  burn- 
ing themselves  in  one  of  their  chapels.  With  the  doctrines 
of  Montanus  and  his  followers  we  are  not  now  concerned, 
much  less  with  their  ascetic  practices  and  puritanic  strict- 
ness. Some  of  their  tenets  were  retrograde — a  reversion 
to  principles  (for  instance,  chiliastic  expectations  of  Christ's 
return),  the  readoption  of  which  would  have  been  a  hin- 
drance to  Christianity.  Others  again,  e.g.  the  excessive 
value  attached  to  celibacy  and  virginity,  tended  to  the 
development  of  Christianity  upon  lines  alien  to  its  primitive 
spirit.  But  the  stress  of  Montanism  was  its  protest — ex- 
aggerated, it  is  true,  as  most  protests  are,  but  in  the  main 
a  conservative  reaction — against  the  elimination  from  the 
Church  of  the  free  life  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Montanists 
stood  for  the  liberty  of  prophesying,  regardless  of  tradition 
— or  even,  if  need  be,  of  primitive  regulation,  as  in  their 
refusal  to  be  bound  by  St.  Paul's  views  as  to  the  place  of 
women  in  the  Church.  They  appealed  to  prophetic  rather 
than  apostolic  succession,  and  attached  an  extreme  value 
to  dreams  and  ecstasies.  Montanism,  at  any  rate  in  its 
Western  form,  had  no  quarrel  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
Catholic,  or  *  great '  Church  as  it  was  then  called,  nor,  in 
the  main,  with  Catholic  ritual ;  only  it  wanted  to  force 
both  back  into  what  it  deemed  to  be  apostolic  simplicity 
freed  from  episcopal  innovations.  Its  work  was  not  to 
bring  forward  new  doctrine,  but  to  emphasise  the  primitive 
gift  of  the  Paraclete,  and  that,  as  Tertullian  puts  it,  all 


100    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

'  advancement  to  better  things '  must  be  '  by  that  Vicar 
of  the  Lord,  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Its  ideal  was  not  organi- 
sation— this  was  the  note  of  the  '  great '  Church — but 
spirituality,  or  rather  what  eighteenth-century  divines 
would  have  called  '  enthusiasm.'  To  secure  this  the 
Montanist  would  shut  out  the  world  from  the  Church  by 
rigorous  discipline,  and  work  upon  the  world  not  so  much 
by  intercession  as  by  challenge.  By  one  of  the  familiar 
paradoxes  of  history  a  movement  which  began  in  the  claim 
of  freedom  ended  in  extreme  rigidity — the  substitution 
for  the  laws  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  inspired  oracles 
of  the  '  prophets.' 

The  antagonism  of  Montanism  to  culture  and  thought, 
especially  Hellenism,  was  inevitable  ;  nor  was  this  antagon- 
ism confined  to  such  distorted  forms  as  Gnosticism.  We 
see  this  antagonism  in  the  self-satisfaction  which  led  the 
Montanists  to  call  themselves  '  spirituals,'  as  against  the 
ordinary  Christians,  who  were  but  *  psychical '  or  '  carnal.' 
The  *  prophets '  through  whom,  in  Montanist  judgment, 
the  Spirit  always  worked,  were  the  least  cultured  of  all 
the  orders  in  the  Early  Church.  Their  roving  lives,  their 
ecstasies,  their  reliance  on  vague,  incoherent  oracles,  their 
tendency  to  dwell  in  their  sermons  on  the  retribution  that 
would  shortly  overwhelm  the  world — points  all  noted  by 
Celsus — did  not  predispose  to  thought.  In  the  highest 
spiritual  state  Montanus  claimed  that  the  man  himself  is 
passive  :  *  Behold  the  man  is  as  a  lyre,  and  I  (the  Spirit) 
sweep  over  him  as  a  plectrum.  The  man  sleeps,  and 
I  wake.'  Such  passivity,  an  early  form  of  Quietism,  is 
destructive  in  the  long  run  of  both  intellectual  and  moral 
eflfort.  But  in  the  Montanist  Passion  of  St.  Perpetua  we 
have  one  of  the  gems  of  sacred  literature,  and  in  the 
Montanist  Tertullian,  Latin  literature,  both  secular  and 
ecclesiastical,  must  always  recognise  one  of  its  great  masters. 

The  effects  of  the  suppression  of  Montanism  must  not  be 
overlooked.    As  a  result,  or  rather  as  a  condition  of  the 


iv.J  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  iOl 

Catholic  victory,  the  Church  was  led  to  see  the  necessity 
of  emphasising  historical  Christianity.  In  the  effort  to 
crush  out  the  '  prophets  '  and  their  "  enthusiasms  "  the 
bishops  fell  back  upon  the  two  conceptions  of  the  canon 
as  the  complete  oracles  of  God,  and  the  limitation  of  the 
Spirit's  special  gifts  to  the  twelve  Apostles.  In  this  last 
we  note  a  narrowing  down  of  the  significance  of  the  early 
order  of  '  Apostles,'  which  has  misled  the  Church  ever  since. 
To  the  epoch  of  revelation  given  to  the  Twelve  all  authority 
belonged.  Between  the  Apostles  and  the  Uving  Church,  the 
channel  of  communication  and,  therefore,  of  authoritative 
interpretation,  was  the  '  apostolic  '  office  of  the  bishops. 
Thus  the  discredit  of  Montanism  riveted  upon  the  Church 
the  very  fetters  of  traditionalism  and  authority  against 
which  the  Montanists  had  made  their  protest.  TertuUian 
already  defines  the  position  of  his  adversaries  in  the  saying, 
*  ecclesia  est  numerus  episcoporum.'  To  this  episcopate 
it  was  given  to  preserve  both  the  unity  and  holiness  of  the 
Church  by  the  use  of  the  keys. 

We  have  referred  to  the  issue  of  Montanism  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  canon.  To  this  the  Church  was  driven  if  it 
were  to  oppose  an  effective  barrier  to  prophetism.  But 
it  was  not  the  Montanists  only  who  forced  this  issue.  A 
section  within  the  Church  itself,  to  which  was  given  the 
name  of  the  Alogi,  in  their  hatred  of  Montanism  refused 
to  recognise  the  Johannine  writings ;  the  Apocalypse 
because  of  its  prophetism,  the  Gospel  because  of  its  stress 
upon  the  Paraclete.  Curiously  enough,  the  Alogi  ascribed 
both  to  the  heretic  Cerinthus.  Against  Montanists  without, 
and  the  Alogi  within,  the  Church  asserted  a  completed  and 
defined  canon  of  the  sacred  writings.  That  the  churches 
of  the  East  and  West  have  never  yet  fully  agreed  on  the 
limits  of  the  canon,  and  that  the  twentieth  century  is  in- 
clined to  question  altogether  their  arbitrary  rulings,  should 
not  prevent  us  from  seeing  the  vast  consequences  for  Chris- 
tian thought  of  the  step  thus  taken. 


m.  xiAk^n±^' TEOVfai^  to  the  reformation  [ch. 


IV 

The  strength  of  the  Empire  lay  in  its  power  of  assimilat- 
ing diverse  races  and  civilisations.  Latin  theology  was 
similarly  comprehensive  and  international.  Its  founders 
were  Irenaeus  and  TertuUian,  the  former  a  native  of  Asia 
Minor,  the  latter  of  Carthage.  That  in  his  latter  days 
TertuUian  (1223)  became  a  Montanist  does  not  lessen  the 
force  of  his  earher  works  in  the  development  of  Western 
thought.  In  some  respects,  as  indeed  we  might  expect 
from  his  origin,  Irenaeus  (t202)  is  in  sympathy  with  Greek 
theology,  especially  in  his  conception  of  the  Incarnation. 
Irenaeus  had  no  confidence  in  the  reason  as  an  organ  of 
truth,  while  his  view  of  the  episcopate  as  possessing  the 
charisma  veritaiis,  the  prominence  he  gives  to  the  insti- 
tutional as  distinguished  from  the  fiduciary  element  in 
Christianity,  is  Latin  rather  than  Greek.  So  also  is  the 
practical  cast  of  his  mind.  He  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  subtle  speculations  ;  '  such  things  we  ought  to  leave 
to  God.'  In  opposition  to  the  Gnostic  philosophy,  he 
founds  his  theology  on  '  CathoUc '  use  of  Scripture,  with 
the  help  of  allegory.  His  great  contribution  to  Western 
thought  was  his  clear  formulation  of  the  idea  of  tradition. 
Irenaeus  will  admit  nothing,  but  obedient  and  acquiescent 
faith  in  the  words  of  Scripture.  Theology  is,  therefore, 
interpreted  faith,  and  the  canon  of  interpretation  is  authori- 
tative tradition.  The  tradition  of  every  church  must  be 
regulated  by  its  agreement  with  the  tradition  of  the 
churches  of  apostolic  foundation,  especially  the  tradition 
maintained  in  its  purity  at  Rome.  For  this  he  finds  his 
reasons  in  Rome's  '  influential  pre-eminence,'  whose  Church 
was  founded  by  the  two  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and 
in  the  ease  with  which,  owing  to  the  constant  intercourse 
of  the  capital  of  the  Empire  with  the  provinces,  any  de- 
parture from  the  Roman  tradition  could  be  detected. 
TertuUian  expressed  the  same  view  in  his  De  Praescri'ptione 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  103 

Hereticorum,thetit\eoiwhich.{praescriptio — a  legal  technical 
term  for  the  limitation  of  a  suit)  signifies  his  argument ; 
the  ruling  out  of  court  of  all  heretics,  inasmuch  as  the  true 
meaning  of  Scripture  could  only  be  decided  by  the  orthodox. 

The  reader  will  recognise  the  immense  importance  of  the 
doctrine  of  tradition  thus  clearly  laid  down  by  Irenaeus 
and  Tertulhan.  To  the  ambiguous  words  of  Irenaeus 
Rome  has  ever  appealed  for  confirmation  of  her  claims  ; 
while  the  general  argument  of  TertuUian  issued  in  the 
position  expressed  by  St.  Augustine  that  '  he  would  not 
believe  the  Gospel  were  it  not  for  the  authority  of  the 
Catholic  Church.'  In  the  fifth  century  the  relation  of 
tradition  to  interpretation  was  further  defined  by  Vincent 
of  Lerins  (f  c.  450)  in  the  famous  phrase,  Qtiod  semper,  qtiod 
uhique,  quod  ah  omnibus  creditum  est,  which  made  the  an- 
tiquity of  tradition  the  decisive  criterion  of  truth.  Vincent, 
it  is  true,  is  careful  to  guard  his  doctrine  from  too  rigid 
application.  Progress  he  allows  is  a  real  fact,  but  it  is 
always  organic,  never  by  innovation ;  it  is  a  deeper  or 
wider  growth  rather  than  a  change  ;  it  is  the  unfolding 
of  the  implicit ;  a  clearer  explanation  of  views  already 
held  ;  the  growth  from  infancy  into  manhood.  Through- 
out the  Middle  Ages  the  dogma  thus  clearly  expressed  by 
Vincent  was  the  unchallenged  opinion  of  the  Church.^ 

In  his  view  of  the  Atonement  Irenaeus  tried  to  develop 
a  dropped  line  of  thought.  In  opposition  to  the  doctrines 
of  Origen,  with  its  emphasis  on  the  Logos,  he  restated  the 
Pauline  ideas,  though  with  an  inadequate  appreciation  of 
the  meaning  of  grace. ^  He  is  mainly  concerned  with  the 
historical  significance  and  results  of  the  Incarnation.  His 
central  thought  is  the  substitution  of  the  obedience  of 
Christ  for  the  disobedience  of  Adam.  He  reminds  us  of 
Anselm  in  his  insistence  that  as  man  has  fallen  man  must 
conquer.  Though  the  Atonement  is  thus  vicarious  and 
objective,  there  is  little  emphasis  of  the  idea  of  penal 

^  See  infra,  p.  130.  *  *'airbairn,  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,  p.  67  n. 


104    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

satisfaction.  It  is  rather  the  recovery  of  the  lost  image 
of  God,  the  restoration  of  humanity  to  his  original  state, 
the  taking  up  anew  the  conflict  in  which  man  has  been 
worsted,  the  reunion  of  things  unnaturally  separated — 
dvaK€<f>aXaLU)(Tis  (or  recapitulatio)  as  Irenaeus  calls  it,  phrase- 
ology which  he  appears  to  have  borrowed  from  Justin.  The 
mystic  Pauline  contrast  of  Adam  and  Christ,  Irenaeus 
worked  out  into  a  definite  Christology  that,  in  spite  of  its 
tendency  so  to  exaggerate  the  accidents  as  to  lose  the 
essence,  has  many  affinities  with  modern  thought.  Jesus 
Christ,  God  and  man,  becomes  the  centre  of  faith  and 
history,  who  '  joins  the  end  to  the  beginning,'  through 
whom  mankind  reaches  his  consummation  and  fulfils  his 
true  destiny.  With  Irenaeus  "  Christianity  is  real  redemp- 
tion, i.e.  the  highest  blessing  bestowed  in  Christianity  is 
the  '  deification '  of  human  nature  through  the  gift  of 
immortality,  and  this  '  deification  '  includes  the  full  know- 
ledge and  enjoyment  of  God."  ^  This  further  suggested 
to  Irenaeus  the  question  as  to  the  cause  of  the  Incarnation. 
With  the  Apologists  the  answer  had  been  given  by  refer- 
ence to  prophecy  ;  and  the  humanity  was  but  shadowy. 
Irenaeus  made  the  Incarnation  the  pivot.  The  Deity,  he 
claimed,  '  must  become  what  we  are  in  order  that  we  may 
become  what  He  is.'  This  answer,  worked  out  by  means 
of  a  few  simple  Biblical  ideas  into  a  coherent  view  of  re- 
demption, has  become  part  of  the  permanent  thought  of 
the  Church.  Not  the  least  significant  feature  in  the  doc- 
trine is  its  optimism,  so  contrary  to  the  Gnostic  idea  of  the 
divine  descent  as  a  fall  or  degrcidation.* 

To  Tertullian,  the  great  lawyer  and  heroic  defender  of 
the  faith,  the  Latin  Church  owes  a  larger  debt  than  she  has 
always  acknowledged.  Next  to  St.  Augustine  he  is  the 
greatest  name  in  Latin  Christianity,  in  spite  of  what 
Neander  calls  the  *'  massive  one-sidedness  of  his  nature." 
His  method,  rhetorical  rather  than  scientific,  leads  him  into 
1  Harnack,  H.D,  ii.  p.  24a  >  Ottley.  op.  cU.  i.  p.  219. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  105 

many  inconsistencies  ;  his  interest,  in  fact,  in  systematic 
theology  is  but  slight.  He  disparages  reason  ;  he  tells  us 
frankly  :  '  credibile  est,  quia  ineptum  est ;  certum  est,  quia 
impossibile  est.'  Though  saturated  with  Stoic  thought, 
he  speaks  scornfully  of  philosophy,  and  yet  is  one  of  the 
ablest  of  those  who  philosophised  on  a  Christian  basis.  He 
sought  to  be  a  disciple  of  the  prophets,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  a  zealous  defender  of  the  established  rules  of  faith. 
But  owing  to  what  Harnack  calls  "  his  masterly  power  of 
framing  formulae,"  Tertullian  founded  the  terminology 
of  much  later  Christian  thinking.  '  Satisfaction,'  '  faith,' 
'  merit,'  '  sacrament,'  '  original  sin,'  and  many  other 
technical  or  legal  terms,  especially  those  that  bear  upon  the 
doctrine  of  sin,  are  all  from  his  mint.  Hence  in  Tertullian 
we  find  the  development  of  the  hard  legal  ideas  of  God  in 
His  relations  to  sin.  In  Tertullian  also  we  first  find  the 
juristic  idea  of  Adam's  sin  as  envolving  the  race,  and  the 
realistic  idea  of  the  physical  taint  of  sin  propagated  through 
procreation  of  souls  (Traducianism),  the  beginnings  of  the 
later  doctrine  of  original  sin  formulated  by  St.  Augustine. 
As  we  might  expect  in  a  Roman  lawyer,  Tertullian's  con- 
ceptions in  his  treatment  of  Christology  are  juridical.  The 
terms  he  uses  are  those  of  a  jurist ;  '  substance  '  being 
*  property,'  '  person '  an  individual  with  legal  rights,  and 
the  like,  though  the  terms,  it  is  true,  are  always  hovering 
between  their  legal  and  Stoic  senses.  Hence  he  approaches 
the  problem  of  the  '  Monarchy  '  of  God  ^  not  from  the 
standpoint  of  first  cause,  but  from  that  of  the  '  sole 
and  single  lordship.'  This  unity  is  not  imperilled  by  the 
administration  through  '  Persons  '  of  the  Divine  lordship. 
Thus  with  Tertullian  the  Trinity,  an  economic  not  im- 
manent necessity,  "  is  our  name  for  God  in  movement  or 
self -manifestation."  ^  As  part  of  this  movement  or  forth- 
coming the  Word  or  Reason  of  God  becomes  the  Son  of 
God,  an  event  which  had  thus  its  origin  in  time — fuit  temjms 

1  Supra,  p.  74  f.  «  Ottley,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  255  flf. 


106   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION  [cb 

cum  FiliiLS  non  fuit ;  language  which  reminds  us,  though 
with  different  connotation,  of  the  later  watchword  of  Arius.^ 

In  reality  TertuUian  was  travelling  along  the  same  line 
of  thought  as  "  those  who  at  a  later  period  tried  to  show 
that  the  Trinity  is  the  eternal  process  of  the  Divine  self- 
consciousness  confronting  itself  with  itself  "  ^  ;  though 
the  concrete,  not  to  say  materialistic,  images  in  which  he 
expresses  his  thought  lead  him  into  difficulties.  As  part 
of  his  tendency  to  change  '*  an  absolute  process  into  a 
concrete  relationship,"  ^  the  title  Logos  with  TertuUian 
gives  place  to  that  of  Son.  The  expansion  of  this  term  is 
his  special  contribution  to  Christian  thought.  This  term, 
with  its  greater  sharpness  of  definition,  its  harmony  with 
human  analogies  and  experience,  and  its  greater  simplicity, 
henceforth  became  predominant,  at  any  rate  in  the  Western 
world,  driving  out  the  more  abstract  Logos  with  its  mystic 
lights  and  shadows,  beauties  and  obscurities.  The  subor- 
dination of  the  Son,  a  doctrine  characteristic  of  all  the 
Alexandrians  and  Apologists,  is  treated  in  his  usual  juristic 
method,  as  the  free  exercise  of  a  delegated  power  ;  while 
the  *  monarchy  '  is  saved  by  his  emphasis  that  this  delegated 
power  must  hereafter  be  delivered  up  to  the  Father  again.* 
With  docetism  in  any  form  he  will  have  nothing  to  do. 
Hence  he  insists,  as  no  writer  had  done  so  fully  before  him, 
on  the  reality  of  our  Lord's  human  soul,  and  on  the  dignity 
of  the  flesh  *  He  assumed.  To  the  Christology  of  TertuUian 
Novatian  (fl.  250)  added  little  save  increased  emphasis  on 
the  subordination  of  the  Son,  in  which,  in  fact,  he  finds  a 
proof  of  the  unity  of  God. 

Owing  to  his  lapse  into  Montanism  the  influence  of  Ter- 
tuUian on  the  Church  was  indirect  and  unacknowledged. 
His  leading  conceptions  were  appropriated  by  Cyprian 
(t258),  whose  importance  lies  in  his  establishment  of  the 

»  Supra,  p.  80.  ■  Dorner,  A.,  vol.  ii.  p.  63. 

»  Fairbairn,  op.  cit.  n.  394.  *  Ottley,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  259  ff. 

8  With  this  Bhould  be  compared  the  clause  aapKbi  dpd(rra<riy  in  the  old 
RomAn  symbol,  contemporary  with  TertalUan. 


IV.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  107 

rule  of  the  hierarchy  and,  in  consequence,  the  identification 
of  the  Church  with  its  priesthood,  the  episcopate  of  which 
constituted  its  essential  unity.  From  this  unity  it  is  im- 
possible that  good  men  should  separate.  That  which  is 
blown  away  from  the  wheat  is  self -convicted  as  chaff.  With 
Cyprian  the  separatist  is  worse  than  the  apostate  ;  the 
latter  sins  once,  the  former  daily.  Though  the  opposite  of 
his  intention — the  emphasis  of  the  ecclesiastical  parity  of 
all  bishops — no  one  so  effectively  assisted  as  this  metro- 
politan of  Carthage  in  the  building  up  of  the  Roman 
primacy,  with  all  its  vast  consequences  for  history  and 
society.  The  supremacy  of  the  bishop  in  the  local  church 
passed  insensibly  into  the  doctrine  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  episcopiis  episcoporum,  who  could  be  none  other  than 
the  bishop  of  the  capital  city.  The  foundation  of  the 
Church  on  this  institutional  basis,  begun  by  Ignatius, 
strengthened  by  the  quarrel  between  Callistus  and  Hippo- 
lytus,  formulated  in  a  definite  theory  by  Cyprian,  was 
completed,  as  we  shall  see  later,  by  St.  Augustine  and  the 
Donatist  controversy.  Unlike  the  Reformation,  the  theory 
of  Cyprian  reigned  almost  unchallenged. 

No  step  more  momentous  for  good  or  ill  has  ever  been 
taken  by  the  Christian  Church  than  its  adoption  of  the 
sacerdotal  and  hierarchical  idea.  Unfortunately  the  matter 
is  one  round  which  there  still  rages  the  fiercest  controversy. 
The  time  has  not  yet  come  for  the  dispassionate  historian 
to  lay  down,  with  general  approval,  the  genesis  of  the  idea, 
its  relation  to  the  original  concepts  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
Master,  and  the  stages  of  its  growth.  Into  this  thorny 
subject  it  is  no  part  of.  our  purpose  to  enter.  But  even 
those  who  claim  for  the  theories  of  Cyprian  the  primitive 
authority  of  Christ  would  not  deny  the  factors  and  forces 
which  made  its  acceptance  the  easier.  The  earliest  Chris- 
tians were  Jews.  They  naturally  interpreted  the  New 
Testament  through  the  law  and  priesthood  of  the  old  cove- 
nant.    For  Gentile  converts  also  a  priestless  religion  was 


108    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

an  anomaly  ;  the  old  habits  of  a  lifetime  would  predispose 
them  to  a  church  of  sacerdotal  form.  Of  equal  importance 
was  the  whole  drift  of  Roman  political  life.  In  the  old 
Greek  ttoAis  the  centre  of  life  was  the  eKKXrjar ta  of  its  free 
citizens  ;  but  in  the  civitas  of  the  Romans  the  imperium 
was  exercised  by  an  imperator.  Cyprian's  theory  thus 
accorded  perfectly  with  the  whole  atmosphere  of  imperialist 
rule,  and,  on  the  adoption  by  the  Empire  of  the  Christian 
religion,  would  naturally  form  the  basis  in  the  new  State 
Church.  How  completely  it  was  helped  by  its  environ- 
ment is  shown  by  the  researches  of  ecclesiastical  archae- 
ologists. M.  Desjardins,  for  instance,  has  given  cogent 
reasons  for  believing  that  in  Gaul  every  city  which  had  a 
flamen  to  superintend  the  old  State  religion,  the  worship  of 
'  Rome  and  Augustus,'  became  the  seat  of  a  Christian  bishop 
in  the  new  State  Church ;  while  metropolitan  archbishops 
are  to  be  found  wherever  there  was  a  provincial  priest  of 
the  imperial  cult.^  Thus  "  the  conquering  R. .  .an  Church 
took  its  hierarchic  weapons  from  the  arsenal  of  the  enemy."  * 

In  the  play  of  these  three  forces — whatever  may  have 
been  the  original  intentions  of  the  Master  and  His  Apostles 
— we  see  the  causes  which  led  to  the  triumph  of  the  ideas  of 
Cyprian.  Believing  as  we  do  that  the  development  of  the 
sacerdotal  idea  was  invaluable  for  the  taming  of  the  bar- 
barians, and  that  in  no  other  way  could  the  chaos  of  the 
dark  ages  have  been  reduced  to  order,'  we  may  allow  that 
in  its  triumph  we  have  the  work  of  the  Spirit.  At  the 
Reformation  new  forces  and  ideas  came  into  play.  But 
the  consideration  of  their  sanction  and  place  in  the  up- 
building of  the  kingdom  of  God  falls  outside  our  scope. 

One  effect  of  the  triumph  of  the  theory  of  Cyprian  and 
Augustine  outlived  the  Reformation,  and,  alas !  still 
survives.     We  allude  to  the  spirit  of  intolerance  and  perse- 

M.   Defljardios,  Oiog.  hist,  et  administrative  de  la  Oqule  Romaine,  iii. 

"~  418;  cf.    '  '  '  '    '         -    - 


pp.  417  418;  cf.  Hatch,  P.C.A.,  «.▼.  Primate,  Orders,  Ordinations,  etc. 
2  Momuiseu,  Provinces  of  Roman  Empire  (Ist  ed.),  i.  p.  349. 
*  See  Hiy  chapter  on  this  ia  Dr.  Uarvie's  Christ  and  Civilisation  (IdOd). 


!▼.]  THE  GENIUS  OF  ROME  109 

cution,  so  alien  to  the  teaching  of  the  Master,  so  character- 
istic, alas  !  of  Christian  thought  in  all  ages.  We  must 
remember,  in  partial  mitigation  of  sentence,  that  toleration, 
even  as  a  speculative  idea,  is  essentially  modern,  and  that 
intolerance,  especially  in  the  Early  Church,  was  oftentimes 
the  only  effective  opposition  to  indifference.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  nothing  more  sad  in  history  than  to  trace  the  steps 
whereby  Christianity,  in  the  growing  bitterness  of  theo- 
logical strife,  especially  over  Arius,  forgot  the  incongruity 
between  persecution  and  the  Gospel.  The  first  result  of 
Christianity  becoming  the  religion  of  the  Empire  was  the 
attempt  by  Cons  tan  tine  to  enforce  uniformity.  In  an 
Imperial  Church  there  can  be  no  right  of  the  sects  to  separ- 
ate existence,  just  as  there  can  be  no  right  of  the  nations 
to  be  independent  kingdoms.  The  world-power  secular 
(Imperial)  or  spiritual  (Catholic)  must  crush  all  revolt.  In- 
dividualism of  thought  or  religion  was  regarded  as  a  thing 
impossible  ;  for  thought  and  religion  had  become  questions 
of  society.  In  their  unity  men  found  the  basis  and  bond 
of  continued  existence.  Whatever,  therefore,  tended  to 
destroy  this  unity  was  held  to  be  as  much  a  hurt  to  the 
State  as  the  work  of  thief  or  coiner.  So  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  the  State,  aided  by  the  Church,  tried  to 
destroy  all  Christianity  that  lay  outside  the  Imperial  or 
Catholic  Church.  The  State,  openly  encouraged  by  so 
great  a  man  as  Ambrose,  in  its  persecution  of  Montanists, 
Donatists,  Priscillianists,  and  others,  confiscated  their 
churches,  prohibited  their  meetings,  banished  their  clergy, 
and  sometimes  even  butchered  their  members.  The  worst 
outcome  of  this  Latin  spirit  was  the  story,  written  in  fire 
and  blood,  of  the  medieval  inquisition.  But  the  growth 
of  intolerance,  and  the  disasters  it  has  inflicted  upon 
civilisation,  would  require  a  volume  to  itself.  Nevertheless, 
in  a  history  of  Christian  thought  it  was  impossible  not  to 
mention  the  rise  of  a  spirit  so  destructive  of  thought,  and 
to  mark  out  the  underlying  causes. 


110   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION  [ch. 


CHAPTER    V 

ST.    AUGUSTINE 
Argument 

§  I.  Importance  of  St.  Augustine — Appeals  to  all  schools 
of  thought— St.  Augustine  and  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire — St.  Augustine  and  the  Reformers — His 
synthesis  of  opposite  tendencies — This  synthesis  in 
part  due  to  his  age,  in  part  to  his  experiences — 
His  emphasis  of  psychology — His  contact  with 
Manichaeism  and  Neoplatonism — Their  influence 
upon  him pp.    111-117 

§  II.  St.  Augustine  and  the  Donatists — Augustine's  con- 
ception of  the  Church — Its  contradictions     .    pp.   117-118 

§  IIL  Importance  of  his  doctrine  of  sin  and  grace — The  re- 
lation to  this  doctrine  of  East  and  West — Sin  and 
the  will — The  punishment  of  sin — His  idea  of 
*  merit ' — His  idea  of  the  '  harmonious  whole '    pp.   118-121 

§  IV.  Pelagianism — Its  origins — Relation  to  Nestorianism 
and  Stoicism — '  Grace '  and  '  nature ' — Augustine's 
errors — Augustine  and  'free  will' — 'Irresistible 
grace' — The  origin  of  the  soul — Traducianism — 
The  greatness  of  Augustine's  method    .        .    pp.  121-127 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  111 


AuRELiTTS  Augustine  *  requires  a  chapter  to  himself. 
Since  St.  Paul  no  equal  name  has  arisen  in  the  Christian 
Church.  From  his  conversion  until  the  present  day  his 
teaching  has  swayed  the  opinions  of  men  and  moulded 
their  most  potent  beliefs.  His  direct  influence  upon  the 
East  was  not  great,  with  the  exception  of  the  Antiochenes. 
Nevertheless,  indirectly,  through  Leo,  he  gave  to  the 
Eastern  Church  at  Chalcedon  the  final  form  of  its  Christo- 
logical  definitions.  But  no  one  did  more  by  his  life  work 
to  give  to  the  Western  Church  the  specific  character  of 
its  theological  thought,  one  outcome  of  which  was  the 
widening  of  the  gulf  already  existing  between  East  and 
West. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  St.  Augustine  is  that 
men  of  every  variety  of  school  look  back  to  him  for  their 
inspiration,  and  trace  their  most  sacred  convictions  to  his 
writings.     Romanist  and  Anglican,  Mystic  or  Covenanter, 
Lutheran  and  Methodist,  to  say  nothing  of  other  schools, 
all  alike  revere  his  memory,  and  are  eager  to  quote  his 
authority.     As  early  as  431  Pope  Celestine  sharply  rebuked 
certain  bishops  of  Gaul  who  had  allowed  his  writings  to  be 
questioned.     For  centuries  he  has  been  the  one  Father 
of  the  Church  recognised   by  all,  to  whom  many  have  ' 
assigned  '  irrefragable  authority.'      To  St.  Augustine  we 
owe  the  formation  of  scholastic  terminology.     From  the  j 
doctrines  he  taught  have  sprung  the  greatest  movements  j  j 
and  their  most  violent  reactions.     Though  the  result  of  heu^ 

'  Born  13th  November  354  at  Tagaste  ;  baptised  by  Ambrose  at  Milan, 
Easter  387  ;  died  at  Hippo,  28th  August  430. 


11?   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

teaching  was  the  slow  but  effectual  elimination  of  Augus- 
tinianism,  Rome  still  looks  back  to  him  as  her  chief  doctor. 
Gottschalk,  Wyclif,  Luther,  Jansen  are  only  a  few  names 
in  a  long  line  of  leaders  of  revolt  who  owed  their  inspiration 
to  his  writings.  An  order  of  canons,  and  an  order  of  friars 
— Luther  himself  was  at  one  time  an  Austin  friar — alike 
claimed  him  as  their  founder,  with  disregard  of  historical 
accuracy,  but  with  true  insight  into  his  importance  in  the 
development  of  monachism.  Upon  the  ideas  which  under- 
lie his  De  Civitate  Dei  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  an  actual 
organised  visible  polity,  as  old  as  the  world,  identified 
with  the  Church  yet  closely  connected  with  earthly  rule,  was 
founded  the  theory  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which  for 
a  thousand  years  dominated  the  political  development  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  opposition  which  Augustine  con- 
stantly posits  between  the  civitas  Dei  and  the  civitas 
terrena  or  civil  society  was  reproduced  in  the  edicts  of 
Hildebrand,  Innocent,  and  Boniface.  Augustine  was  the 
first  of  the  leaders  of  the  Church  to  give  full  expression  to 
the  truths  called  evangelical,  that  religion  is  a  personal 
relationship  between  the  soul  and  God.  At  the  same  time, 
he  gave  powerful  support  to  the  conception  of  grace  as 
objective,  as  something  imparted  by  sacraments  or  Cliurch. 
"  The  Biblicism  of  later  times  is  to  be  traced  back  to 
St.  Augustine  ;  and  the  resolute  deletion  of  Scriptural 
thoughts  by  an  appeal  to  the  authority  of  the  Church's 
doctrine  may  equally  refer  to  him."  ^  Though  the  state- 
ment is  exaggerated,  there  is  yet  truth  in  Hamack's  claim 
'*  that  the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages  presents  itself  in  the 
sphere  of  dogmatic  history  as  the  period  when  the  Church 
was  fixing  its  relationship  to  Augustine  and  the  numerous 
impulses  originated  by  him."  ^  In  certain  of  its  aspects 
the  Reformation  was  but  the  triumph  of  Augustine's  doc- 
trine of  grace  over  his  doctrine  of  the  Church.  That  with 
the  twentieth  century  his  influence  seems  on  the  wane  is 
X  Hamack.  H.D.  r.  p.  99.  •  Ibid.  p.  8. 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  113 

only  to  state  in  other  words  the  transitional  character  of 
the  age  in  which  we  are  living.  . 

The  greatness  of  St.  Augustine  lies  in  his  synthesis  || 
of  opposing  tendencies.  His  rich,  many-sided  nature  " 
appropriated  from  all  sorts  of  sources,  but  gave  a  new 
significance  to  all.  No  one  before  or  after  has  so  success- 
fully fused  into  on^doctrines  that  are  really  contradictory. 
Attempts  to  harmonise  them  are  worthless,  and  lead  only 
to  what  Hamack  rightly  calls  "  theological  chatter."  ^ 
They  are  united,  however,  in  the  rich  inner  life  of  their 
originator.  This  it  is,  rather  than  the  possession  of  any- 
clear,  logical  system,  which  has  led  Eucken  to  call  him 
"  the  single  great  philosopher,  on  the  basis  of  Christianity 
proper,  the  world  has  had."  ^  For  the  success  of  his  syn- 
thesis is  due  to  his  deep  sense  of  the  continuous  evolution 
of  the  divine  purpose  in  all  things,  and  of  the  unity  and 
reality  of  the  spiritual  life.  With  Augustine  everything 
is  dominated  by  the  deepest  wants  of  mind  and  heart,  of 
love  and  hope.  His  own  desire  is  '  to  know  God  and  the 
soul :  nothing  more.'  Hence  his  ability  to  grasp  all  his 
problems  with  his  whole  being,  and  not  with  his  heart  alone, 
or  with  his  mind  alone. 

This  astonishing  synthesis  can  only  be  explained  when 
we  remember  the  age  in  which  St.  Augustine  lived,  and 
above  all  his  own  spiritual  experiences.  "  He  stood  on 
the  watershed  of  two  worlds.  The  old  world  was  passing 
away  ;  the  new  world  was  entering  upon  its  heritage,  and 
it  fell  to  him  to  mediate  the  transfer  of  the  culture  of  the 
one  to  the  other."  ^  The  result,  as  might  be  expected,  was 
too  often  an  impossible  fusion.  So  also  in  the  more 
spiritual  sphere.  Throughout  his  life  he  was  intent  on^. 
reducing  to  a  consistent  unity  the  various  elements  of  I 
history,  nature,  and  revelation  as  they  presented  themselves  (j 

1  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  167. 

«  Quoted  by  Warfield  in  Hastings'  E.R.E.  ii.  p.  222. 

»  Warfield  in  E.R.E.  ii.  p.  220. 

H 


114    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

in  the  consciousness  of  the  behever.  As  during  a  long  life 
his  views  expanded  and  changed,  it  is  often  possible  to 
appeal — as  we  shall  do  more  than  once  in  this  chapter — 
from  the  later  to  the  earher  Augustine.  The  synthesis  he 
attempted  is  imperfect  even  within  the  hmits  of  his  own 
experience.  But  this  should  not  surprise  us.  His  theo- 
logical treatises  are  not  a  priori  architectonic  systems. 
They  grew  up  without  definite  sequence,  out  of  the  needs 
of  his  life  and  ministry.  His  theories  are  but  his  inter- 
preted experiences.  In  his  Confessions  we  have  the  key 
to  his  doctrine  of  grace,  the  love  of  God  seeking  him  and 
prevailing  within  him  in  spite  of  himself.  In  the  troubles 
of  his  age,  above  all  in  the  fall  of  Rome  before  Alaric,  we 
have  the  explanation  of  his  City  of  God.  He  was  driven  by 
the  crash  of  the  old  order  to  find  an  apology  for  Christianity 
in  the  philosophy  of  history,  of  which  science  he  was  really 
the  creator.  To  understand  the  dogmas  of  St.  Augustine 
apart  from  the  age  and  the  man  is  an  impossible  task.  But 
in  these  pages,  through  limitations  of  space,  such  know- 
ledge must  be  assumed  in  the  reader. 

As  we  might  expect  from  this  emphasis  of  experience, 
Augustine  lays  unusual  stress  upon  psychology.  With 
St.  Augustine  self-knowledge  becomes  one  of  the  roads  to 
knowledge  of  God.  The  acuteness  of  his  psychological 
observations  is  remarkable,  and  is  one  of  the  many  features 
in  which  we  may  claim  that  he  is  essentially  modem.  No- 
where is  this  more  clearly  brought  out  than  in  his  answer 
to  the  philosophical  scepticism  of  the  Academies.  There  is, 
he  pleads,  one  matter  over  which  there  can  be  no  mistake  : 
*  Even  though  I  err,  still  I  am  *  {'Si  enim  jailor,  sum  ') — a 
curious  anticipation  of  the  *  cogito,  ergo  sum  '  of  Descartes 
a  thousand  years  later  :  My  very  doubt  is  a  proof  of  the 
existence  of  myself.  Again  and  again  he  returns  to  this 
argument  in  new  forms  and  with  new  illustrations. 
Throughout  his  system  he  makes  the  inner  life  the  starting- 
point  of  reflection  upon  the  outer  world.     As  a  rule,  his 


▼.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  116 

philosophical  position  is  that  of  Plato,  but  in  his  explanation 
of  the  origin  of  knowledge  he  rejects  the  Platonic  theory 
of  reminiscence  for  that  of  the  divine  truth  borne  in 
directly  upon  the  human  soul.  "  The  ideals  we  cherish, 
the  intelligible  relations  we  all  recognise,  are  the  thought 
of  the  Eternal  Creator — His  Eternal  Being  manifested  in 
space  and  time  among  things  of  men,  through  which  we 
may  see  Him  as  in  a  glass  darkly."  ^  Both  these  thoughts 
were  afterwards  worked  out  into  Christian  Mysticism,  as 
was  also  St.  Augustine's  statement  that  there  was  a 
stage  in  spiritual  experience  in  which  men  passed  beyond 
Scripture. 

St.  Augustine  did  not  draw  merely  from  Catholic  or  philo- 
sophic sources.  He  began  his  spiritual  history  as  a  Mani- 
chaean.  For  nine  years  he  was  one  of  their  '  auditors ' 
or  catechumens.  But  his  acute  intellect  and  unsatisfied 
spiritual  nature  finally  escaped,  through  the  help  of  Am- 
brose, from  this  pessimistic  fatalism,  with  its  doctrine,  so 
uncompromising  in  its  dualism,  that  nature,  man's  body,  and 
half  man's  soul  are  the  work  of  an  evil  being.  '  There  is  no 
health,'  he  discovered,  '  in  those  who  find  fault  with  any 
part  of  Thy  creation,  as  there  was  no  health  in  me  when 
I  found  fault  with  many  of  Thy  works.'  Nevertheless, 
Manichaeism  or  Gnosticism  left  its  scars.  His  view  of  life, 
on  the  whole,  is  pessimistic  ;  life  here  is  but  a  preparation 
for  the  hereafter.  Moreover,  "  His  confidence  in  the 
rationality  of  Christian  faith  had  been  shaken  to  the  very 
depths,  and  it  was  never  restored."  ^  Hence  the  contra- 
dictions in  his  teaching,  which  certainly  did  not  distress 
him,  inasmuch  as,  unlike  the  Apologists,  he  did  not  expect 
that  everything  in  his  creed  would  be  clear,  consistent,  and 
demonstrable.  Hence,  also,  the  tendency  in  St.  Augustine 
to  fall  back  upon  the  Church  for  the  guarantee  of  faith — 
a  doctrine  that  was  to  develop  in  later  ages  into  that  of 
infallibility.     Moreover,  Augustine  was  never  able  to  shake 

1  Cunnincham,  St.  Austin,  p.  34.  «  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  79. 


116   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

himself  free  from  the  Manichaean  doctrine  of  a  twofold 
moraUty,  one  for  the  small  body  of  the  elect  or  perfect,  the 
other  for  the  general  mass.  In  the  monks  of  his  new  faith 
and  in  their  higher  service  Augustine  found  the  old  distinc- 
tion, though  in  a  more  reasonable  form. 

Another  stage  in  his  spiritual  history  was  his  relation 
to  Neoplatonism.  Through  Neoplatonism  he  was  first 
snatched  from  Manichaean  darkness.  Before  his  con- 
version, or  rather  as  one  stage  in  it,  Augustine  seems  to 
have  studied  the  Enneads  of  Plotinus  as  translated  into 
Latin  by  Victorinus.^  From  Neoplatonism  he  learned 
that  God  is  a  spirit,  immaterial,  eternal,  incorruptible, 
unchangeable,  the  supreme  Unity  that  is  the  Soul  of  souls, 

*  the  Life  which  never  dies,'  '  Who  governs  the  whole  world 
down  to  the  leaves  that  flutter  on  the  trees.'  At  one  time 
even  he  seems  to  have  attained  the  adept's  goal  of  the 
mystic  vision,  the  ecstasy  in  which  '  with  the  flash  of  one 
trembling  glance  he  arrived  at  That  which  Is.'  But  the 
Neoplatonic  idea  that  moral  evil  can  be  got  rid  of  by  moral 
discipline  did  not  satisfy  his  craving  for  dehverance  or 
meet  the  demands  of  his  conscience. ^  He  accepted,  it  is 
true,  as  did  his  teacher  Ambrose,  the  contention  that  all 
evil  is  '  a  privation,'  that  apart  from  good  there  is  no  real 
existence.  Evil,  therefore,  was  not,  as  the  Manichaeans 
taught,  an  eternal  power  in  opposition  to  God.     But  this 

*  privation,'  he  held,  was  a  taint,  the  mark  of  God's  just 
judgment,  '  a  perversity  of  will  which  turns  aside  from 
Thee,  0  God,  flinging  away  its  inner  treasure.'  The  one 
remedy  for  this  he  found  to  Ue,  subjectively  in  deep  humiUty, 
objectively  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  '  The  books  of  the 
Platonists  tell  nothing  of  this.  Those  pages  give  me  not 
the  lineaments  of  this  religion,  the  tears  of  confession,  the 
troubled  spirit,  the  broken  and  contrite  heart.  ...  No 

*  For  Victorinua,  we  infra,  p.  198. 

*  St.  AtiguBtine'ti  account  of  his  release  from  NeopIatoniBm  is  found  in  th« 
seventh  book  of  bis  Confeuion$. 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  117 

one  there  hearkens  to  Him  that  calleth  :  Come  unto  Me  all 
ye  that  labour.  They  think  it  scorn  to  learn  from  Him 
because  He  is  meek  and  lowly  of  heart.' 


The  details  of  the  Donatist  controversy — a  continuation, 
as  it  were,  under  a  new  form  of  the  issues  at  strife  in  Mon- 
tanism — belong  to  ecclesiastical  history.  But  the  real 
question  in  dispute  was  far  wider  and  deeper  than  the  re- 
baptism  of  those  who  had  received  the  rite  at  the  hands  of 
heretics  or  of  the  lapsed.  The  result  of  the  controversy  was 
to  fasten  upon  the  West  the  conception  which  dominated 
the  Middle  Ages,  that  the  Church  in  its  sacraments  and 
ministry  possessed  virtues  that  were  objective  and  inalien- 
able, whatever  the  character  of  its  members.  Logically,  of 
course,  St.  Augustine  was  right.  It  is  impossible  to  put 
the  reality  of  the  means  of  grace  and  the  existence  of  the 
Church  at  the  hazard  of  the  worthiness  of  its  ministers. 
This  would  be  to  found  it  not  on  the  rock  but  on  the  quick- 
sands. But  the  victory  of  his  logic  had  its  perils.  The 
revolts  of  Wyclif  and  Hus  in  the  fourteenth  century  against 
this  dogma  were  followed  by  the  later  revolts  of  Luther 
and  Wesley.  It  is  no  small  testimony  to  the  greatness  of 
St.  Augustine  that  the  inspiration  in  their  revolt  against 
this  Augustinian  doctrine  was  their  grasp  of  another,  the 
Augustinian  doctrine  of  grace. 

Though  to  St,  Augustine  the  Church  is  the  congregatio 
sanctorum,  he  yet  unconsciously  transfers  to  the  institu- 
tional Church  the  predicates  which  rightly  belong  only  to 
the  ideal.  To  St.  Augustine,  be  it  remembered,  the  ideal 
is  the  only  real,  and  that  which  is  not  good  and  eternal  has 
no  real  existence.  Hence  he  identifies  the  ideal  Church 
with  the  visible  Church.  When  pressed  with  the  difficulty 
of  the  presence  of  the  wicked  in  the  Church  he  falls  back 
upon  the  number  of  the  elect,  without  seeing  that  he  had 


118    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [oh. 

thus  reduced  the  visible  Church  to  an  empirical  Church, 
the  bounds  of  which  He  outside  human  cognisance.  The 
result  was  complete  confusion.  In  one  direction  the  in- 
fluence of  St.  Augustine  was  thrown  upon  the  side  of  the 
behef  in  the  Church  as  the  sphere  of  salvation  and  authority, 
the  sole  agent  in  grace.  Through  St.  Augustine,  working 
in  alliance  with  other  forces,  and  building  on  the  foun- 
dations of  Cyprian,  this  Roman  conception — to  which 
really  his  fundamental  doctrine  of  grace  was  opposed — 
became  the  dominant  thought  of  the  world.  At  the  same 
time,  his  conception  of  the  Church  as  the  elect  who  never 
obtained  their  election  through  the  Church  but  directly 
by  grace,  who  might  even  lie  outside  the  visible  society, 
undoubtedly  tended  to  overthrow  the  idea  he  had  other- 
wise built  up.  Another  fruitful  idea,  in  practical,  though 
not  necessarily  logical,  opposition  to  the  arguments  whereby 
he  had  overthrown  Donatism,  was  Augustine's  insistence 
upon  love  as  the  note  of  the  Church,  without  which  the 
sacraments  themselves  were  deprived  of  their  efficiency. 


m 

The  central  fact  with  St.  Augustine,  the  starting-point 
of  his  thoughts,  is  his  realisation  of  Sin  and  Grace.  Through 
these,  more  than  any  other,  he  has  won  his  supreme  place. 
By  their  revival  he  first  gave  to  St.  Paul,  their  real  author, 
his  right  place  in  Christian  thought.  Hitherto  these  great 
Pauline  truths  had  been  so  little  recognised  that  their  em- 
phasis by  St.  Augustine  came  upon  the  Church  with  all  the 
surprise  of  a  new  discovery.  To  this  discovery  he  was 
guided  by  his  own  spiritual  experience.  Between  the 
Confessions  and  the  spiritual  history  of  St.  Paul  before  his 
conversion,  as  given  in  Romans  vii.,  there  was  probably 
much  similarity.  The  consciousness  of  the  radical,  sinful 
condition  had  been  driven  in  upon  him  by  Ambrose.  In 
bis  revolt  from  Manichaeism  Augustine  had  discovered 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  119 

that  evil  was  no  physical  power.  His  own  failures  refuted 
the  ruling  Stoic  conception  that  virtue  was  the  supreme 
good,  that  in  the  concentration  of  the  will  upon  its  attain- 
ment lay  the  essence  of  redemption.  It  is  characteristic 
of  the  man  and  of  the  whole  drift  of  his  experience  that 
in  his  closing  days  at  Hippo  the  penitential  psalms,  written 
in  large  letters,  were  hung  where  he  could  see  them. 

In  our  estimation  of  every  movement  associated  with 
some  great  thinker  there  is  a  danger  lest  we  overlook  the 
influence  of  the  age.  Not  by  accident  was  it  that  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  sin  and  grace  was  raised  in  the 
West  and  not  in  the  East.  The  doctrine  of  sin  can  never 
be  properly  treated  except  by  a  society  in  which  the  in- 
dividual is  strongly  conscious  of  himself.  To  a  corporation, 
whether  state  or  trading  company,  the  sense  of  sin  is  always 
difficult  to  bring  home.  In  the  Eastern  world,  where  the 
new  Empire  laid  its  paralysing  grip  upon  all,  individualism 
could  only  find  expression  in  the  eremite  life.  Moreover, 
Greek  philosophy,  which  was  in  the  ascendant  in  the 
Eastern  Church,  owing  to  its  imperfect  sense  of  personality, 
had  never  troubled  itself  much  over  the  question  of  Free 
Will.  In  the  West  the  fall  of  the  Empire  had  thrown  back 
the  individual  upon  himself.  One  result  was  the  adoption 
by  the  West,  under  the  lead  of  Martin  of  Tours  and  others, 
of  Eastern  Monasticism  in  a  form  more  suitable  to  itself ; 
another,  the  development,  through  the  teaching  of  St. 
Augustine,  of  the  doctrine  of  sin  and  grace.  For  the 
constant  burden  of  the  thought  of  Augustine  is  the  relation 
of  God  and  the  soul,  of  the  soul  and  its  God,  and  such  an 
inquiry  necessarily  leads  to  the  doctrine  of  sin  and  grace. 
Moreover,  in  the  East  there  was  always  a  reluctance  to 
assume  the  corruption  or  depravity  of  the  race ;  in  the  West, 
since  the  teaching  of  Tertullian,  there  was  full  recognition 
of  a  bias  towards  evil.  As  in  the  West  there  was  a  readiness 
to  accept  the  freedom  of  the  will,  the  doctrine  of  the  pre- 
valence and  potency  of  evil  brought  in  as  a  corollary  the 


120    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

doctrine  of  the  potency  and  prevalence  of  the  grace  which 
could  thus  redeem  and  restore. 

With  St.  Augustine  the  origin  of  evil  is  through  the 
defect  of  will,  the  negligence  of  a  changeful  will.  *  For  as 
a  snake  does  not  creep  on  with  open  steps  but  by  the  very 
minutest  efforts  of  its  several  scales,  so  the  slippery  motion 
of  falling  away  from  good  takes  possession  of  the  negligent 
only  gradually,  and  beginning  from  a  perverted  straining 
after  the  likeness  of  God,  arrives  in  the  end  at  the  likeness 
of  beasts.'  Unfortunately  St.  Augustine  did  not  stop 
there,  but  added  other  elements  of  more  than  doubtful 
character.  In  an  acute  criticism  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  Augustine  had  pointed  out  that  the  narrative  of 
creation  was  not  a  history  of  actual  facts,  but  was  alle- 
gorical, for  the  coming  into  being  of  Time  could  not  take 
place  in  periods  of  time.  But  when  he  came  to  the  third 
chapter  he  dropped  his  criticism,  and  treated  it  as  actual 
history  instead  of  as  the  unfolding  of  truth  under  alle- 
gorical language.  This,  possibly,  was  because  of  his  desire 
to  be  able  to  give  to  the  Manichaeans,  with  their  insistence 
on  the  eternal  character  of  evil,  an  account  of  how,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  evil  had  arisen  in  time.^ 

As  to  the  punishment  of  sin,  St.  Augustine  would  not 
agree  with  the  '  Platonists  who  hold  that  all  punishments 
tend  only  to  the  purgation  of  sin.'  Punishment  is  the 
assertion  of  the  moral  order  which  crime  has  disturbed. 
If  punishment  were  in  itself  fully  remedial  the  Incarnation 
and  Redemption  of  Christ  would  be  superfluous.  The 
punishment  of  sin  is  not  necessarily  physical,  it  consists 
rather  *  in  the  ignorance  and  incapacity  that  befall  every 
soul  that  sins ' ;  these  in  their  turn  lead  to  deeper  aliena- 
tion from  God.  Unfortunately  Augustine  is  again  led  by 
a  literalism  that  is  out  of  harmony  with  his  usual  principles 
of  Scriptural  interpretation  into  insistence  that  the  punish- 
ment after  death  is  material  as  well  as  spiritual ;  nor  does 
^  Cf.  Cunningham,  op.  cit.  p.  56  fL 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  121 

he  notice  the  intellectual  difficulties  involved  in  his  giving 
an  everlasting  significance  to  certain  physical  conditions, 
i.e.  to  phenomena  in  space  and  time.  Rightly  or  wrongly, 
Augustine's  doctrine  henceforth  dominated  the  Church, 
to  the  exclusion  of  Origen's  larger  hope  of  the  final  sal- 
vation of  all. 

In  his  treatment  of  reward  Augustine  accepted  the  idea 
of  '  merit '  with  which  the  Church  had  been  familiarised 
by  Tertullian  and  Cyprian.  In  the  final  decision  of  char- 
acter merit  alone  would  be  considered.  St.  Augustine 
reconciled  this  with  his  doctrine  of  grace  by  teaching  that 
all  our  merits  are,  after  all,  only  the  gifts  of  God.  '  When 
God  crowns  our  merits  He  is  only  crowning  His  own  gifts.'  ^ 
Faith,  Love,  and  Merit  are  the  successive  stages  in  the 
road  of  salvation,  faith  being  the  preliminary,  and  love  the 
active  agent  in  the  new  life. 

We  must  note,  moreover,  a  further  deduction  of  immense 
consequence.  With  St.  Augustine  evil  was  not,  as  the 
Manichaeans  held,  "  a  real  substantial  existence  opposing 
God.  It  was  a  defect  in  things  otherwise  good,  and  which, 
despite  their  defects,  still  made  a  harmonious  whole.  In 
so  far  as  a  being  persists  it  is  because  it  has  elements  of 
goodness."  ^  In  this  idea  of  the  "  harmonious  whole  "  we 
see  the  source  of  Austin's  dogma,  destined  to  grip  so  terribly 
a  later  age,  of  hell  itself  witnessing  to  the  glory  of  God,  as 
part  of  the  ordered  fitness  of  creation. 


IV 

We  pass  next  to  the  consideration  of  Augustine's  conflict 
with  Pelagius,  a  pious  British  or  Irish  monk  whose  secluded 
cloister  life  had  never  wrestled  with  the  deeper  sins  of  the 
soul.  Pelagius  had  been  roused  to  anger  by  the  flabby 
Christianity  of  the  day,  that  excused  its  degeneracy  by 

»  See  Haraack,  H.D.  v.  p.  87. 

*  Cunningham,  op.  cit.  p.  71,  and  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  114. 


122    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

pleading  inability  to  fulfil  the  commands  of  God.  In 
Augustine's  conflict  with  the  Manichaeans  the  question  at 
issue  was  metaphysical ;  in  his  conflict  with  Pelagius,  and 
his  abler  allies,  Caelestius  and  Julian  of  Eclanum,  the 
question  was  more  psychological.  There  are  few  errors 
or  opinions  which  have  not  some  root  in  the  past.  So  with 
Pelagianism.  The  historical  connections  of  this  heresy 
with  the  current  Nestorianism  seem  fairly  certain ;  its 
theological  links  are  more  evident,  and  were  first  traced  out 
by  Cassian  of  Marseilles.  The  doctrine  that  Jesus  was  a 
sinless  man  promoted  to  the  dignity  of  being  assumed  by 
God  is  not  far  removed  from  the  Pelagian  idea  that  all 
men  can  become  by  their  own  efforts  what  Christ  became, 
or,  at  least,  may  avoid  sin  and  earn  eternal  blessedness. 
In  neither  doctrine  is  there  the  essential  exaltation  of  the 
Saviour.  Both  doctrines  are  extreme  forms  of  individual- 
ism. In  neither  is  there  any  sense  of  solidarity  religious 
or  social,  and  this,  after  all,  is  a  note  of  no  small  import- 
ance in  the  doctrine  of  original  sin.  The  ultimate  effect 
of  both  Nestorianism  and  Pelagianism,  as  well  as  of  its 
modem  counterpart  Deism,  is  to  deny  the  need  and  power 
of  the  Atonement,  or,  at  least,  to  reduce  it  to  a  mere 
question  of  God  and  the  individual.  This  is  only  to  state 
in  other  words  that  Pelagianism  fails  to  grasp  the  reality  of 
evil,  which  it  regards  as  a  momentary  self-determination 
of  the  will  instead  of  as  the  result  of  a  deeper  cause.  For 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin  teaches  the  great  truth  of 
experience,  that  behind  all  separate  sins  there  lies  sin  itself, 
expressing  itself  in  a  want  of  rest,  joy,  harmony,  and 
love.  Moreover,  in  their  exaltation  of  the  nature  of  man 
Nestorianism  and  Pelagianism  alike  overlook  the  cardinal 
factor  in  religion  as  distinct  from  morals,  the  '  grace  *  or 
condescension  of  God,  and,  consequently,  both  undervalue 
the  means  of  grace. 

Nor  is  it  only  with  Nestorianism  that  Pelagianism  has 
contact.     The  Stoic  doctrine,  as  prevalent  in  the  time  of 


v.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  123 

Augustine  as  in  new  forms  it  is  prevalent  in  the  twentieth 
century/  of  a  life  according  to  nature,  of  virtue,  and  of  the 
spiritual  as  only  natural  forces — nature  itself  being  re- 
garded as  independent  of  the  notion  of  God — is  practically 
only  another,  if  more  philosophical,  expression  of  the  same 
error.  For  the  crucial  question  in  the  whole  controversy 
was  whether  '  grace  '  should  be  reduced  to  '  nature,'  man's 
*  glorious  constitution,'  and  the  like,  upon  whose  primitive 
innocence  Julian,  the  acutest  of  all  the  Pelagians,  insisted. 
Pelagianism,  in  fact,  is  only  another  aspect  of  the  age-long 
conflict  of  "  morals  as  against  religion,  free  will  as  against 
grace,  reason  as  against  revelation,"  ^  and,  we  may  add, 
of  culture  against  conversion.  Not  without  cause  does 
Julian  appeal  to  Aristotle,  without  whose  categories  he 
regards  theology  as  valueless.^  For  Aristotle  was  ever  the 
prophet  of  the  natural  man.* 

In  the  broad  outlines  St.  Augustine  was  undoubtedly 
right.  His  victory  over  Pelagius  was  a  victory  for  which 
all  subsequent  generations  may  be  thankful.  But  the  same 
high  praise  cannot  be  given  to  all  the  details  of  the  contro- 
versy. His  great  adversary  Julian  riddled  much  of  his 
doctrine,  and  showed  how  untenable  it  becomes.  His  whole 
doctrine  of  grace  in  the  Adamic  state,  apart  altogether 
from  what  modem  science  would  say  about  it,  is  itself 
an  illogical  Pelagianism,  in  complete  conflict  also  with 
his  doctrine  of  irresistible  grace.  In  his  doctrine  of 
original  sin  he  argues,  as  his  adversary  Julian  pointed 
out,  as  if  all  would  be  well,  could  children  be  bom  by 
being  shaken  from  trees. 

The  student  should  be  careful  not  to  confuse  with  the 
teaching  of  Augustine  opinions  which  later  writers,  especi- 
ally Calvin,  read  into  him.  Thus  in  our  judgment — the 
question,  it  is  true,  might  fairly  be  debated^-St.  Augustine 

1  In  the  eighteenth  century  we  find  it  best  in  the  teaching  of  Boosseao. 
'  Rainy,  Ancient  Catholic  Church,  p.  468. 

*  See  Harnack's  elaborate  note,  H.D.  v,  p.  191  f. 

*  See  infra,  p.  228. 


124    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

did  not  always  hold  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity  in  the 
form  commonly  imputed  to  him,  that  through  the  Fall  man 
both  wills  and  does  nothing  but  evil,^  with  the  added  rider 
of  inherited  sin  in  itself  sufficient  for  damnation.  For 
Augustine  at  times  clearly  teaches  that,  in  spite  of  its  de- 
pravity, the  power  of  the  will  is  still  a  noble  power,  in  the 
possession  of  which  lies  the  kernel  of  our  nature.^  But 
Augustine  did  not  see  that  in  admitting  that  sin  springs 
from  the  will  he  reduced  his  theory  of  original  sin  to  a  con- 
tradiction. Moreover,  Augustine  had  written  in  defence 
of  Free  Will  against  the  Manichaeans,  and  distinguished, 
though  in  an  uncertain  fashion,  divine  prescience  from 
divine  foreordination.  God  predestines  because  God  fore- 
sees what  man  will  do.  Augustine  held,  it  is  true,  that  unre- 
generate  man  is  so  bound  by  sin  that  he  is  not  *  free  *  to 
do  right.  But  this  denial  of  '  freedom  '  is  really  a  denial 
of  capricious  choice  ;  the  assertion  of  self-determination 
on  the  lines  of  one's  real  character.'  In  the  same  way 
God  Himself  is  not  '  free  '  to  do  wrong  ;  for  St.  Augustine 
in  his  earlier  days  refused  to  separate  the  Will  of  God  from 
the  character  of  God,  and  so  saved  himself  from  the  divine 
arbitrariness  which  is  the  great  blot  in  Calvinism.  But 
Calvin  was  only  following  the  repulsive  teaching  of  St. 
Augustine's  later  days,  as  set  out  in  his  letter  to  Sixtus 
(417  or  418). 

Another  doctrine  of  Augustine  destined  to  bear  much 
fruit  in  later  centuries  was  that  the  election  of  grace  is 
irresistible — as  indeed  with  his  premises  it  is  bound  to  be — 
though  no  one  can  be  certain  that  he  possesses  this  grace. 

1  In  his  final  survey  of  his  teaching  in  the  Retract,  St.  Augustine,  however, 
adopts  the  extreme  form.  The  modern  revolt  against  his  doctrine  can,  how- 
ever, appeal  from  the  later  to  the  earlier  Augustine.  Unfortunately  the  later 
Angnstine,  and  the  crude  interpretations  of  Angustine,  usually  held  the  day 
in  tke  Church. 

«  On  this  see  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  123  n. 

•  It  would  be  interesting  to  compare  this  with  the  teaching  of  T.  H. 
Green,  Prolegomena  to  Ethics.  The  gap  between  the  two  does  not  seem  to 
be  very  great,  except  in  the  greater  precision  and  consistency  of  the  Oxford 
schoUr. 


T.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  126 

As  Harnack  rightly  remarks  :  *  With  all  his  horror  of  sin 
Augustine  had  not  experienced  the  horror  of  uncertainty 
of  salvation.'  ^  Augustine  never  saw  that  his  doctrine  of 
predestination  must  issue  in  the  destruction  of  the  con- 
ception of  the  Church  and  its  sacraments,  upon  which  he 
had  enlarged  in  the  Donatist  controversy.  Where  grace  is 
irresistible  all  else  becomes  needless,  and  man  himself  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  be  a  moral  creature  at  all.  The  doctrine 
of  predestination  is  also,  as  Dr.  Bigg  points  out,  only  a 
form  of  Gnosticism,  for  "  it  makes  no  real  difference 
whether  our  doom  is  stamped  upon  the  nature  given 
by  our  Creator  (Gnosticism)  or  fixed  by  an  arbitrary 
decree."  ^ 

It  is  impossible  to  pass  away  from  Pelagianism  without 
glancing  at  another  allied  controversy.  The  question  of 
original  sin  is  strictly  bound  up  with  the  question  of  the 
origin  of  the  sinning  soul.  To  this  question  three  different 
answers  were  given  in  the  Early  Church.  Origen,  following 
out  his  Platonic  philosophy,  taught  the  pre-existence  of 
the  soul.  Human  life  is  only  a  disciplinary  process  for 
the  spirits  that  sinned.  Such  a  theory,  while  it  secures 
responsibility  and  accounts  for  original  sin,  becomes  really 
an  extreme  form  of  individualism.  Solidarity  may  have 
existed  in  previous  worlds  ;  there  is  none  among  mankind. 
By  this  theory  the  body  becomes,  as  in  the  great  poem  of 
Wordsworth,  merely  a  prison-house.  A  second  theory, 
current  in  the  East,  as  also  with  Jerome  and  Hilary,  was 
Creationism,  or  the  new  creation  by  God  at  the  time  of  birth 
of  every  individual  soul ;  the  body  in  which  it  tabernacled 
being,  however,  derived  by  natural  processes  of  generation. 
Such  a  theory  is  bound  logically  to  issue  in  the  belief  that 
the  body  is  the  source  of  sin,  a  view  akin  to  the  old  Gnos- 
ticism. A  third  theory  was  Traducianism.  This  was  the 
theory  of  the  West,  forcibly  expounded  by  TertuUian,  and 

1  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  210  n. 

•  Bigg,  Christian  Flatonists,  pp.  284-86. 


126    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

made  a  part  of  the  Catholic  faith  by  Leo.  In  this  concep- 
tion body  and  soul  are  alike  formed  by  natural  generation. 
The  indirect  adoption  by  St.  Augustine  of  this  theory,  above 
all  the  logical  issues  of  his  conflict  with  Pelagianism,  led 
to  Traducianism  becoming  the  recognised  creed  of  the 
Church.  Whatever  its  truth — and  modem  biology,  as  well 
as  the  facts  of  experience  and  psychology,  have  much  to 
say  for  it  * — it  gives  to  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  even 
in  its  crudest  forms,  a  certain  logical  unity.  But  this 
unity  was  purchased  at  too  great  a  cost,  since  it  tended 
to  lay  the  whole  stress  of  sin  upon  the  sexual  desire.  We 
see  the  outcome  of  this  doctrine  in  the  stress  which  for  a 
thousand  years  was  laid  upon  celibacy  as  the  supreme  grace 
of  the  would-be  saint.OJj^ 

We  have  spoken  oi  St.  Augustine  as  the  greatest  of 
Christian  philosophers.  His  greatness  consists  as  much 
in  his  method  as  in  his  teaching.  His  teaching  we  may 
reject ;  at  any  rate  we  cannot  on  his  ipse  dixit  accept  it 
as  a  ready-made  solution  of  the  difficulties  of  modem 
thought.  His  doctrine  of  predestination  was  a  novelty 
in  the  Church,  and  as  such  was  regarded  with  strong  sus- 
picion. Even  in  his  own  days  John  Cassian  of  Marseilles, 
and  Faustus,  bishop  of  Riez  in  Provence,  set  aside  the  ex- 
treme teaching  of  St.  Augustine  in  favour  of  a  more  rational 
account  of  the  relation  of  Grace  and  Free  Will  to  Original 
Sin.  Their  semi-Pelagianism,  though  formally  rejected  by 
the  council  of  Orange  (529),  was,  however,  the  doctrine 
which  prevailed  long  before  Trent,  and  which,  through  the 
discredit  of  Calvinism,  is  now  dominant.  But  neither  this 
nor  other  departures  from  his  dogmas  touch  his  real  great- 
ness. "  It  is  easy  to  show  that  in  every  single  objectionable 
theory  formulated  by  Augustine  there  lives  a  true  phase 
of  Christian  self-criticism."  ^     "  Old  controversies  return, 

1  To  the  present  writer  Traducianism  seems  logically  to  lead  to  th« 
Deistic  notion  of  God  starting  a  series  to  which  He  was  once  related,  but 
which  now  runs  on  by  its  own  laws  or  caprice. 

■  Hamack,  H.D.  v.  p.  221. 


▼.]  ST.  AUGUSTINE  127 

but  in  new  forms ;  yet  the  way  which  he  pursued  in  his 
search  for  truth  is  open  to  us  too ;  it  is  still  the  path  of 
faith  that  leads  to  knowledge."  ^  With  Augustine,  as 
with  every  true  thinker,  *  the  fear  of  the  Lord  was  the 
beginning  of  wisdom.' 

^  Cunningham,  op.  cit.  p.  9 ;  Nisi  credideritis,  non  intelligetis  was  Austin's 
motto.    Cf.  ii^fra,  p.  186. 


128    CHEISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  KEFOKMATION   [ch. 


CHAPTER    VI 


THE   DARK   AGES 

Argument 

§  I.  Gregory  the  Great — His  importance — The  character 
of  medieval  theology — Its  unity — Individual  judg- 
ment rarely  effective — The  divisions  of  medieval 
thought pp.   129-133 

§  II.  The  Dark  Ages  and  the  barbarians — Intellectual 
equipment  of — Boethius — The  Triviwi  and  Quad- 
rivium — Gregory  on  the  teaching  of  grammar — The 
disasters  for  theology  of  this  loss  of  culture — The 
rise  of  thepenitential  system — Its  evils — Medieval 
developments — Gregory's  doctrine  of  penance  and 
Atonement pp.   133-139 

§  III.  Irish  culture  —  Charles  the  Great  —  Intellectual 
activity  of  his  court — Charles's  independence — 
Claudius  of  Turin  -Agobard  of  Lyons — The  addi- 
tion of  the  FUioque  to  the  Creed — Origin  and  history 
of  the  clause — The  schism  of  East  and  West — 
The  arguments  of  Anselm     .        .        .        •     pp-   139-144 

§  IV.  Adoptionism — Materialised  theories  of  the  P'ucharist 
— raschasius  Radbert— Ratram— Gottschalk  and 
predestination pp.   145-160 

§  V.  John  the  Scot— His  opposition  to  Gottschalk— His 
De  Divisione  Naturae— B.is  translation  of  Dio- 
nysius  the  Areopagite—  The  importance  of  this 
work — Analysis  of  its  contents      .        .        •    PP*    160-159 


vl]  the  dark  ages  129 


Medieval  thought  begins  with  pope  St.  Gregory  the  Great 
(590-604).  He  is  the  connecting  link  between  the  ancient 
and  the  medieval  period,  the  last  of  the  Fathers  and  the 
first  of  the  Schoolmen.  Various  events  tended  to  bestow 
upon  Gregory  this  mediating  position.  He  marks  in  more 
ways  than  one  the  beginning  of  a  new  era.  In  the  year 
before  he  ascended  the  papal  throne  Spain  renounced  her 
Arianism  at  the  council  of  Toledo,  and  proclaimed  her 
return  to  the  Roman  unity.  In  the  West  the  old  Roman 
Empire  had  passed  away,  while  the  onset  of  the  barbarians 
had  for  the  moment  ceased.  The  first  monk  to  become  a 
pope,  Gregory  was  also  the  first  of  the  popes  to  turn  to  the 
new  races  in  the  West  to  restore  to  Rome  her  lost  empire. 
By  his  writings,  his  zeal,  his  fame  for  sanctity,  his  quick- 
ness to  grasp  opportunity,  and  his  administrative  wisdom, 
Gregory  succeeded  in  making  effective  in  the  West  the 
primacy  of  his  see.  Through  the  bloodless  weapons  of  his 
missionaries  lawless  countries  bowed  before  the  supremacy 
of  the  new  Caesars.  lUyricum,  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Africa 
acknowledged  his  metropolitan  claims ;  while  Italy,  swept 
by  the  Lombards,  recognised  in  Rome  her  head  in  temporal 
as  well  as  spiritual  matters.  On  the  firm  foundations  thus 
laid  by  Gregory  the  life  of  Western  Europe  was  established 
anew.  The  Innocents  and  Hildebrands  of  later  centuries 
but  carried  out  with  greater  detail  the  principles  which  we 
find  in  germ  in  Gregory. 

In  Gregory's  administrative  reconstructions  the  ruling 
idea  is  not  new.  It  was  the  reversion  in  a  new  form  to 
the  old  conception  of  the  Roman  Empire.     The  formal 

I 


130   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

inauguration  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  by  the  coronation 
of  Charles  the  Great  on  Christmas  Day  800,  was  but  the 
consummation  of  Gregory's  efforts  to  secure  continuity 
with  the  past.  Equally  lacking  in  all  claims  to  originality 
was  his  theology.  What  Gregory  did  was  not  to  develop 
new  ideas  so  much  as  to  introduce  the  old  creeds  and  faiths 
to  the  barbarian  races  conquered  by  the  Church,  in  a  form 
adapted  to  their  crude  intelligence.  In  all  his  writings,  how- 
ever naive,  we  discern  the  practical  administrator,  more 
anxious  for  the  accommodation  of  thought  to  immediate 
need  than  for  its  purity  and  truth.  As  his  Dialogues 
show,  no  superstition  is  too  gross  if  only  its  acceptance 
served  in  the  taming  of  barbarian  tempers.  His  theo- 
logy and  thought  are  a  debased  Augustinianism,  but  as 
such  it  was  so  perfectly  adapted  to  its  environment  that 
for  centuries  Gregory  was  looked  up  to  by  the  Western 
world  as  the  wisest  of  the  fathers,  more  read  even  than 
St.  Augustine  himself.  If  to-day  we  are  tempted  to  wonder 
at  this  success,  it  is  because  we  forget  his  practical  work. 
Gregory's  doctrine  fitted  his  practice  of  Church  government 
as  perfectly  as  hand  and  glove  ;   the  two  became  one. 

This  administrative  character  of  medieval  theology  was 
in  reality  the  effect  of  a  change  in  thought  itself,  or  rather 
was  due  to  the  complete  development  of  the  ideas  of  the 
Latin  world.  The  restless  intellectual  activity,  both 
within  and  without  the  Church,  which  led  the  great  fathers 
to  formulate  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  a  period  of  stagnation.  The  investigation 
of  doctrine,  the  attempt  to  reconcile  dogma  with  mental 
needs,  was  no  longer  the  predominant  question.  Doctrine 
was  a  sacred  deposit,  handed  down  from  the  fathers,  to 
be  transmitted  unimpaired  to  the  new  nations.  Of  this 
inheritance  the  guardians  were  the  Roman  hierarchy,  the 
Church  alone  its  recognised  interpreter.  As,  moreover, 
the  content  of  dogma  was  fixed  and  complete,  the  field  of 
inquiry  was  limited  to  the  giving  precision  and  harmony 


vij  THE  DARK  AGES  131 

to  the  accepted  doctrines.  The  attempt,  as  we  shall  see, 
was  not  always  successful.  Interpretation  of  the  old  often 
passed,  by  unconscious  gradations,  into  the  promulgation 
of  the  new.  Nevertheless,  for  nearly  a  thousand  years 
the  attempt  at  restriction  was  made.  There  were,  no 
doubt,  certain  intrusive  elements,  the  influence  of  the 
Saracens,  and  the  like.  But  these  chiefly  manifested 
themselves  in  the  formation  of  diverse  heresies  of  limited 
extent  and  influence. 

Thus,  speaking  broadly,  the  first  characteristic  of  medieval 
thought  is  its  essential  unity.  Differences  rarely  touched 
the  deeper  centres  ;  for  at  bottom  the  diverse  schools, 
however  apparently  opposed,  were  fundamentally  one. 
Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  a  more  divided  age,  the 
matters  which  separated  Gerson  from  Hus,  to  take  a  noted 
illustration  of  antagonism,  were  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  doctrines  in  which  they  were  agreed.  Here  and  there 
the  unity  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  broken,  but  such  breach 
was  generally  political  rather  than  theological  or  philo- 
sophical. 

This  unity  of  medieval  thought  must  not  be  misunder- 
stood or  exaggerated.  There  never  was  a  time  in  the  Middle 
Ages  when  men  were  so  cramped  by  dogmatic  system  that 
there  was  no  room  left  for  individual  opinion.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  student  of  medieval  thought  is  often  surprised  at 
its  freedom.  But,  as  a  rule — for  the  exceptions  rarely 
exerted  any  wide  or  lasting  influence — this  liberty  of  in- 
dividual judgment  always  adjusted  itself  in  the  last  resort 
to  certain  fundamental  positions  of  the  Church  ;  though 
the  method  of  adjustment  is  often  violent,  involving 
contradiction  between  the  actual  and  the  assumed  premises. 
But  for  our  present  purpose  it  is  of  importance  to  notice 
that  the  attempt  at  reconciliation  is  always  there  ;  the 
contradictions  so  familiar  to-day  did  not  exist ;  or  rather, 
where  they  existed,  they  speedily  disappeared,  logically 
or  otherwise,  in  the  all-pervading  consciousness  of  ultimate 


132    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

unity.  Friction  between  theology  and  science  could  not 
be  permanent,  for  theology,  as  in  the  story  of  the  conflict 
between  the  rods  of  Moses  and  those  of  the  Egyptian 
magicians,  swallowed  up  the  rest. 

But  though  medieval  thought  was  thus  a  unity  in  itself, 
to  a  degree  utterly  unknown  either  in  the  Roman  world 
or  in  the  world  since  the  Reformation,  it  nevertheless 
possessed  well-defined  periods.  These  were  determined,  as 
is  natural  where  the  chief  question  is  one  of  authoritative 
interpretation,  by  the  discovery  or  promulgation  of  certain 
recognised  text- books.  The  importance  of  text-books  for 
the  medieval  mind  cannot  be  exaggerated.  The  influence 
of  Gratian's  Decretum,  or  of  Peter  Lombard's  Sentences, 
may  be  instanced.  For  centuries  law  and  divinity  centred 
itself  round  their  study.  But  the  authoritative  text- 
books, par  excellence,  were  to  be  found  in  the  works  of 
A.ristotle.  It  is  by  its  relation  to  these  that  the  periods  of 
medieval  thought  may  best  be  defined.  In  the  first  period, 
which  closes  with  St.  Bernard,  the  works  of  Aristotle  were 
known  only  in  misleading  and  partial  Latin  versions.  In 
the  second  period  fuller  and  more  accurate  translations 
were  introduced  from  the  East  to  the  Western  world,  and 
were  made  the  basis  of  a  vast  superstructure  of  Christian 
theology.  In  the  third  period,  which  begins  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  the  growing  knowledge  of  letters  made  it 
impossible  that  men  should  remain  satisfied  with  the  con- 
fined outlook  of  the  past,  or  with  the  narrow  philosophical 
foundations  upon  which  the  current  thought  rested. 

As  is  usually  the  case,  the  transition  from  the  one  period 
to  the  other  was  by  no  means  abrupt,  though  eawih  was 
marked  by  certain  well-defined  characteristics.  In  the 
first  period,  in  spite  of  its  general  barrenness,  we  find  in 
unexpected  quarters  considerable  originality  of  thought, 
and  the  emphasis  of  the  value  of  individual  opinion.  In 
the  second  period  the  appeal  to  an  authoritative  text- 
book was  often  attended  with  intellectual  disaster,  and  the 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  183 

restriction  of  liberty.  The  third  period,  at  any  rate  in  its 
fruition,  scarcely  falls  within  our  scope,  though  the  reader 
should  always  remember  that  the  revival  of  Greek  letters 
and  the  rise  of  the  new  intellectual  spirit  considerably  ante- 
dated the  Reformation,  and  only  in  the  early  years  of  the 
sixteenth  century  became  part  of  a  great  religious  move- 
ment. 

n 

The  first  period,  often  known  as  the  Dark  Ages,  covers 
the  centuries  from  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire  to  the 
discovery  of  Aristotle.  Outwardly  it  was  a  period  of  stress 
and  strain,  the  upheaval  of  a  world  already  broken  in 
pieces.  Successive  flights  of  barbarians — Saxons,  Huns, 
Northmen,  and  the  like,  each  one  no  sooner  settled  and 
comparatively  civilised  than  overwhelmed  in  its  turn  by 
some  new  invasion — led  to  the  destruction  of  such  little 
culture  as  had  survived  the  fall  of  the  Empire.  Viewed 
from  within,  the  period  was  marked  by  superstition  and 
terror.  Amid  the  chaos  of  society  men  found  in  these  the 
groundwork  of  authority,  and  the  main  element  of  order. 
Without  and  within  alike  the  Church  was  fighting  a  des- 
perate battle.  At  times  she  nearly  succumbed,  and  it 
is  undeniable  that  she  degenerated  in"  the  contest  and 
absorbed  some  of  the  surrounding  barbarism. 

The  student  would  do  well  to  realise  the  intellectual 
equipment  with  which  Western  theologians  in  the  Dark 
Ages  advanced  to  their  task.  Of  the  great  inheritance  of 
classical  culture  Httle  had  survived  ;  of  the  thoughts  of 
Hellas  almost  none.  Such  secular  knowledge  as  remained 
was  represented  by  the  well-known  division  of  the  seven 
arts  into  the  elementary  Trivium  (Grammar,  Rhetoric, 
Dialec,tics),  and  the  more  advanced  Quadriviutn  (Music, 
Arithmetic,  Geometry,  Astronomy).  The  text- books  in" 
use  were  two  in  number,  Boethius  and  Cassiodorus— for  the 
Satyricon  of   Martianus  Capella,  often  mentioned  as  the 


134   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

third,  was  really  a  grotesque  allegory.  Of  the  two  the 
most  valuable  was  that  of  Boethius,  a  writer  in  the  early 
years  of  the  sixth  century,  probably  the  author  of  a  much- 
suspected  treatise,  De  sancta  Trinitate.  But  his  importance 
for  later  generations  did  not  spring  from  his  theological 
beliefs,  but  from  his  being  the  chief  means  whereby  such 
scanty  knowledge  of  Aristotle  as  modified  his  Platonism 
had  been  preserved  to  the  Western  world.  In  his  famous 
De  Consolatione  Philosophiae  we  have  the  source  to  which, ' 
for  the  most  part,  the  scholars  of  the  Dark  Ages  turned  for 
their  knowledge  of  classical  culture. 

Little,  however,  of  real  value  had  been  saved.  The  gold 
of  past  culture  as  distinct  from  strictly  dogmatic  or  exe-- 
getical  science  had  sunk  ;  it  was  only  the  lighter  rubbish 
that  had  floated  down  the  stream  of  time.  Even  in 
Boethius  there  is  of  the  Qvudrivium  but  the  scantiest 
outline ;  the  real  secular  education  of  the  period  was  con- 
fined to  the  Trivium.  Under  grammar  were  included  not 
only  the  technical  rules  of  Priscian  and  Donatus,  but  also* 
the  few  survivals  from  the  wreck  of  pagan  culture,  though 
the  study  of  these  was  hindered  by  a  lurking  imeasiness 
of  conscience  in  the  teacher.  Vergil  and  Cicero  were 
pagans  ;  Vergil,  in  fact,  a  great  magician  who  had  fled  from 
Rome  to  Naples,  and  enriched  that  city  with  his  black  art. 
The  study  of  such  writers  was  often  regarded  as  like  unto 
the  sin  of  Achan.  Even  so  enlightened  a  statesman  as 
Gregory  the  Great  had  written  to  Desiderius  of  Vienne  to 
condemn  his  teaching  of  grammar  and  the  reading  of  the 
poets  :  '  A  report  has  reached  us  which  we  cannot  mention 
without  a  blush,  that  thou  expoundest  grammar  to  certain 
friends  ;  whereat  we  are  so  offended  and  filled  with  scorn 
that  our  former  opinion  of  thee  is  turned  to  mourning  and 
sorrow.  The  same  mouth  singeth  not  the  praises  of  Jove 
and  Christ.  ...  If,  hereafter,  it  be  clearly  established 
that  the  rumour  which  we  have  heard  of  thee  is  false,  and 
that  thou  art  not  applying  thyself  to  the  idle  vanities  of 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  186 

secular  learning,  we  shall  render  thanks  to  God,  who  hath 
not  delivered  over  thy  heart  to  be  defiled  by  the  blas- 
phemous praises  of  secular  men.' 

The  loss  of  classical  culture  was  most  disastrous  for 
medieval  theology.  There  was  nothing  to  save  it  from 
itself,  or  to  keep  it  in  touch  with  the  human.  The  result 
was  of  necessity  a  pretentious  dogmatism.  The  hardening 
of  all  thought  into  formulae  was  also  assisted  by  another 
influence.  The  knowledge  of  Roman  law  did  not  die  with 
classical  culture.  In  the  towns,  especially  of  northern 
Italy,  as  the  history  of  the  great  law  university  of  Bologna 
shows  us,  a  knowledge  of  Roman  law  survived  the  conquests 
of  the  barbarians  ;  like  Roman  roads,  aqueducts,  and 
bridges,  it  had  been  built  too  solidly  to  be  easily  swept 
away.  The  effect  of  this  survival  cannot  be  over-estimated. 
We  see  it  in  the  Church  in  two  directions.  The  one  was  the 
rise  of  Canon  law,  confessedly  moulded  upon  the  Roman 
model.  The  other,  more  germane  to  our  present  inquiry, 
was  the  permeation  of  medieval  theology  with  forensic 
ideas  and  their  expression  in  forensic  language.  To  the 
effect  of  this  survival  of  the  Latin  spirit  we  have  already 
alluded. 

As  regards  its  content,  so  far  as  theology  was  concerned, 
the  inheritance  transmitted  to  the  Middle  Ages  by  Gregory 
the  Great  was  little  better  than  a  confused  Angus tinianism. 
Of  the  great  thinkers  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  of  their 
broad,  comprehensive  outlook  upon  life,  the  Western 
Church  became  almost  completely  ignorant,  save  for  a  few 
elements  assimilated  from  Hilary,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  and 
Augustine,  or  from  '  Dionysius  the  Areopagite.'  Here  and 
there  writers  like  Alcuin  or  Paschasius  Radbert  show  their 
indebtedness  to  Greek  Christology  ;  but  they  were  voices 
crying  in  the  wilderness.  The  scientific  study  of  the  Bible, 
begun  by  Origen,  was  a  lost  art.  Of  Augustine  the  most 
valuable  element,  his  doctrine  of  grace,  was  practically 
suppressed  until  the  Reformation.     The  consequences  of 


136   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

this  suppression  manifested  themselves  in  different  forms, 
the  most  disastrous  being  the  system  of  the  penitentials. 
This  great  instrument  for  Christianising  barbarian  tempers, 
the  doctrinal  basis  of  which  may  be  found  in  the  acts  and 
teaching  of  Ambrose,  was  probably  in  its  origin  the  creation 
of  the  Irish  Church  in  its  most  flourishing  days,  and  in 
especial  of  Columban.  Thence,  through  the  English  Arch- 
bishop Theodore  of  Tarsus  (668-690),  the  penitentials  passed 
into  the  general  Church  of  the  West.  An  attempt  at 
codification  of  the  different  systems  in  vogue  formed  part 
of  the  reforms  of  Charles  the  Great ;  this  was  one  of  the 
forces  upon  which  he  relied  for  reducing  his  empire  to  order. 
In  time  the  older  penitentials  gave  place  to  the  scholastic 
SB/Crament  of  penance,  though  many  of  the  earlier  pre- 
scriptions were  embodied  in  the  text-books  of  Gratian  and 
Gregory  ix. 

In  condemnation  of  the  principles  and  methods  of  the 
whole  system  of  the  penitentials,  historians  and  theo- 
logians are  now  substantially  agreed.  Nevertheless,  the 
student  should  remember  the  law,  illustrated  on  every 
page  of  ecclesiastical  history,  "  that  those  beliefs  or  insti- 
tutions which  seem  irrational,  or  absurd,  or  unworthy  of 
the  Christian  spirit,  have  come  into  vogue  in  order  to  kill 
some  deeper  evil,  not  otherwise  to  have  been  destroyed."  ^ 
The  penitentials  were,  perhaps,  necessary  if  the  Church 
was  to  bring  the  masses  that  had  nominally  passed  into 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  yet  remained  in  many  respects 
heathen  at  heart,  into  a  working  acquaintance  with  the 
elementary  laws  of  decency  and  hygiene,  let  alone  any  real 
experience  of  religion.  In  the  early  medieval  Church 
baptism  came  first — ofttimes  the  baptism  of  whole  races 
received  as  they  were  into  the  Church  of  the  Empire  which 
they  had  conquered  ;  training  and  discipline  must  needs 
follow.  Penance,  to  adopt  for  this  system  of  discipline  the 
familiar  title  nowadays  somewhat  restricted  in  its  appli- 

'  Allen,  Christian  Institutions,  p.  408. 


TL]  THE  DARK  AGES  187 

cation,  was  thus  no  mere  creation  of  sacerdotalism,  but  to 
some  extent  a  response  to  popular  needs,  the  outcome  of 
the  barbarian  invasions.  In  the  decaying  Roman  world 
no  state,  save  the  Church,  was  strong  enough,  or  civilised 
enough,  to  enforce  obedience  to  moral  law,  or  hold  down 
the  usages  and  reminiscences  of  heathenism. 

The  punishments  of  the  Church  were  at  first  limited  to 
those  sanctioned  by  the  pains  and  fears  of  the  wounded 
conscience,  and  the  humiliation  which  public  confession 
involved.  Unfortunately  the  Latin  Church,  in  which  the 
feeling  of  the  legal  relationship  of  the  individual  to  the 
Church  was  always  prominent,  soon  yielded  to  the  Teutonic 
custom  of  commuting  misdeeds  by  a  money  payment,  or 
by  means  of  substitutes,  combining  with  the  custom  Roman 
systematic  legal  codification.  Hence  the  opening  of  the 
door  to  the  abuses  of  indulgences,  not  the  least  of  which 
was  its  mercantile  scale.  Thus  the  deepening  of  the  con- 
ception of  sin,  which  the  system  at  first  effected,  degener- 
ated later  into  the  stupefying  readiness  with  which  men 
acknowledged  themselves  to  be  sinners. 

The  other  evils  of  the  system  have  often  been  expounded, 
and  are  sufficiently  familiar.  The  student  of  ethics  will 
point  out  the  tendency — always  natural  to  the  Roman  spirit 
— to  stiffen  all  morality  into  legal  restrictions,  and  to  con- 
found the  inner  law  with  the  regulations  of  the  Church. 
The  theologian  will  dwell  on  the  result  in  making  sin  some- 
thing arbitrary  and  external  to  the  soul,  and  the  Atonement, 
in  consequence,  arbitrary  also,  a  matter  to  be  effected  by 
constant  haggling  and  bargaining  over  the  degree  of  sin, 
or  its  classification,  and  the  value  of  merit.  This  last  idea, 
the  origins  of  which  we  find  in  TertuUian  and  Ambrose, 
developed  into  the  doctrine  of  the  common  treasury  of 
merit,  out  of  whose  inexhaustible  store  the  Pope,  as  the 
vicar  of  God,  could  dispense  to  the  spiritually  destitute. 

This  doctrine,  first  suggested  by  the  English  doctor, 
Alexander  of  Hales   (tl245),   and  perfected  by  Thomas 


138    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

Aquinas,  was  really  the  logical  development  of  the  idea, 
incorporated  by  Gallic  influence  into  the  Roman  symbol  in 
the  fifth  century,  of  the  '  communion  of  saints  '  !  The 
Church  triumphant  was  one  '  family  '  or  '  clan  '  with  the 
Church  on  earth,  and  therefore,  in  accordance  with  the 
common  Teutonic  idea,  could  equally  discharge  the  debt 
of  any  member  of  the  clan.  The  result  was  inevitable. 
The  priest  who  could  release  from  the  punishment  of  sin 
on  earth  (for  to  this,  officially  speaking,  the  system  alone 
had  reference),  or  whose  prayers  had  power  with  God  in 
the  mysterious  other  world  of  retribution,  took  the  place 
of  the  Christ  who  could  purify  the  heart.  The  Pope  and 
not  the  Holy  Spirit  became  the  administrator  of  mercy 
and  pardon.  The  human  race  became  afraid  of  dealing 
directly  with  God,  and  sacerdotalism  won  its  long  triumph. 
When  Abailard  laid  down  the  principle  that  the  essence 
of  sin  lay  in  the  motive,  he  was  condemned  ;  such  teaching 
was  a  blow  at  the  dominion  of  the  Church.  When  Dante 
proclaimed  in  his  Divine  Comedy  that  hell,  purgatory,  and 
heaven  correspond  to  an  inward  condition  of  the  soul, 
men  heeded  not,  the  mystics  apart,  the  voice  crying  in  the 
wilderness.  ReHgious  consciousness  had  handed  over  to 
the  successors  of  St.  Peter  not  only  supremacy  on  earth, 
but  an  actual  dominion  over  vast  circles  of  the  unseen 
world. 

The  doctrine  of  penance  underlying  the  penitential 
system  was  supplied  by  Gregory.  In  penance  four  points 
were  included  :  perception  of  sin,  and  *  contrition  ' — these 
two  may  be  considered  as  one — *  conversion,'  '  confession,* 
and  '  satisfaction ' ;  and  the  greatest  of  these  was  '  satis- 
faction.' The  consequences  of  this  exaggeration  of  '  satis- 
faction *  were  writ  large  in  more  ways  than  in  a  theory  of 
the  Atonement.  The  historical  Jesus  became  almost  wholly 
identified  with  the  suffering  Saviour  ;  the  Gospel  of  the 
Incarnation  was  lost  in  the  suggestion  of  the  physical 
agonies  of  Calvary  ;    the  Fatherhood  of  God  became  an 


Yi.]  THE  DARK  AGES  139 

almost  unknown  idea,  hidden  especially  by  the  universal 
belief  in  the  need  for  the  intercession  of  Virgin  and  saints. 
To  Gregory's  theory  of  the  Atonement  as  a  deception  of 
the  devil  we  have  already  referred.  In  all  his  expositions 
of  the  work  of  the  Redeemer,  "  Christ's  death  and  penance 
appear  side  by  side  as  two  factors  of  equal  value."  ^  Sins 
of  a  lower  grade  may  be  atoned  for,  and  the  soul  purified 
in  the  fires  of  purgatory.  The  rites  and  sacraments  of  the 
Church  are  the  channel  of  salvation.  The  Atonement,  in 
fact,  becomes  so  completely  external  in  character  that 
Gregory  frankly  owns  that  the  death  of  Christ  was  not 
absolutely  necessary.  An  arbitrary  fiat  would  have  done 
as  well,  more  especially  as  Gregory  limits  down  the  elect 
to  the  number  needed  to  supply  the  place  of  the  fallen 
angels.  One  other  matter  demands  attention  because  of 
later  conflicts.  As  regards  images  of  saints,  Gregory 
favoured  the  popular  custom  :  '  The  picture  is  used  in 
churches  that  those  who  are  ignorant  of  letters  may,  at 
least,  read  by  seeing  upon  the  walls  what  they  cannot  read 
in  books.' 

in 

The  two  centuries  from  Gregory  to  Charles  the  Great, 
though  of  great  importance  for  the  historian,  were  almost 
sterile  in  their  contributions  to  thought.  Such  authorship 
as  existed  took  the  form  rather  of  abridgments  from  the 
Fathers,  e.g,  the  Sentences  of  Isidore  of  Seville  (t636) .  Only 
among  the  Irish — or  rather,  to  give  them  their  proper  name, 
the  Scots — whether  in  Ireland  or  in  their  numerous  mission 
centres  in  every  part  of  the  Continent,  was  there  any  true 
intellectual  activity.  Before  the  inroad  of  the  Danes, 
Ireland  was  the  university  both  of  northern  England  and 
of  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks.  The  monasteries  founded 
by  its  missionaries  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Apennines — 
lona,  Melrose,  Luxeuil,  Fulda,  St.  Gallen,  Reichenau  and 
1  Harnack,  H.D.  v.  p.  265. 


140   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Bobbio,  may  be  cited  as  illustrations — were  the  libraries 
and  schools  of  whole  kingdoms. 

From  Ireland  the  hterary  life  passed  to  England.  Aid- 
helm  at  Malmesbury,  Benedict  Biscop  at  Wearmouth,  Bede 
at  Jarrow,  Alcuin  at  York,  carried  on  the  work  of  the  Scots, 
combining  the  current  which  flowed  eastward  from  Ireland 
with  that  which  came  westward  through  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  Benedict  Biscop,  and  others  from  Rome  and  even 
Greece.  For  a  few  years  the  surviving  culture  of  East  and 
West  converged  to  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great,  so  that, 
in  the  words  of  his  biographer,  '  the  dark  expanse  of  the 
kingdom  entrusted  to  him  by  God  was  filled  with  the  new 
radiance  of  all  science.*  The  old  temper  which  regarded 
rehgion  and  culture  as  irreconcilable  enemies,  an  instance 
of  which  we  have  seen  in  Gregory,  passed  into  an  anxiety, 
to  which  in  826  the  Church  gave  official  sanction,  '  to  search 
out  masters  and  doctors  who  should  teach  the  study  of 
letters  and  learned  arts.'  The  Carlovingian  reforms, 
especially  of  the  monastic  institutions,  for  instance  the 
canons  established  by  Chrodegang  of  Metz  (760),  all  bear 
witness  to  the  anxiety  of  Charles  to  promote  education  and 
to  establish  schools.  In  collegiate  churches  the  first  duty 
of  the  chancellor  or  dean  was  either  to  be  himself  a  school- 
master or  else  provide  a  substitute. 

The  educational  work  of  Charles  did  not  last ;  it  wa« 
submerged  in  the  general  deluge  which  followed  his  death, 
and  finally  swept  away  by  the  new  invasion  of  the  North- 
men. But  the  impulse  given  by  the  intellectual  activity 
of  Charles's  reign  manifested  itself  in  the  ninth  century  in 
a  remarkable  outburst  of  criticism,  both  philosophical  and 
theological.  To  this  freedom  of  thought,  no  doubt,  the 
welter  of  the  age  contributed.  The  intellectual  ferment 
was  no  longer  checked  by  .the  watchfulness  of  Charles  the 
Great,  the  vigilant  organiser  of  social  and  poHtical  order 
whether  in  Church  or  State. 

But  Charles  had  himself  contributed  to  the  ferment  of  the 


▼l]  the  dark  ages  141 

day  by  his  own  independence.  In  the  Caroline  Books, 
written  at  his  instigation  and  sanctioned  by  him,  we  find 
the  author — whether  Alcuin  or  not  is  uncertain — quoting 
certain  wrongs  as  '  allowed  rather  by  the  ambition  of  Rome 
than  sanctioned  by  apostolic  tradition.'  At  the  council 
of  Frankfurt  (794),  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Pope 
Hadrian  [.,  Charles  succeeded  in  procuring  the  rejection  of 
the  decrees  passed  by  the  Eastern  Church  at  the  council  of 
Nicaea  (787),  that  images  of  the  Saviour,  of  the  Virgin,  and 
of  angels  and  saints  should  be  set  up  in  the  churches  and 
given  their  due  worship  {Trpoa-Kx'vyja-i.^,  not  Aar/ocm).  A  synod 
at  Paris  under  Lewis  the  Pius  (825)  was  even  more  em- 
phatic in  its  condemnation  of  superstition. 

The  controversy  thus  begun  by  Charles  was  carried  on 
after  his  death  by  a  Spaniard,  Claudius,  bishop  of  Turin 
(t839).  In  his  warfare  with  the  gross  materialised  Chris- 
tianity of  the  age,  Claudius  condemned  in  unsparing  terms 
the  belief  in  the  mediation  of  saints,  the  efficacy  of  pil- 
grimages, the  authority  of  Rome.  He  forbade  throughout 
his  diocese  the  observance  of  saints'  days,  and  called, 
though  in  vain,  for  the  destruction  of  all  images  and 
pictures.  The  worship  of  the  images  of  saints  seemed  to 
him  but  a  new  form  of  the  old  worship  of  demons.  '  Why 
dost  thou  humble  thyself  and  bow  down  to  false  images  ? 
Why  bend  thy  body,  a  slave  before  vain  likenesses  ?  God 
made  thee  erect,  thy  face  is  raised  towards  Him.  Thither 
look,  therefore  ;  seek  God  above.'  He  quotes  with  ap- 
proval the  argument  of  the  Apostle  :  '  Though  we  have 
known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we 
Him  no  more '  ;  and  carried  it  on  to  revolutionary  con- 
clusions of  his  own.  *  You  worship,'  he  writes,  '  all  wood 
formed  after  the  manner  of  a  cross  because  for  six  hours 
Christ  hung  on  a  Cross.  Worship  then  all  virgins,  because 
a  virgin  bore  Him  ;  old  rags,  for  He  was  swaddled  in 
them  ;  asses,  for  He  rode  thereon.'  As  for  the  papacy, 
the  authority  of  St.  Peter  ceased  with  his  death,  and  is 


142    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

possessed  by  his  successors  only  in  so  far  as  they  imitate 
his  Ufe. 

Claudius,  protected  by  the  Emperor  Lewis,  died  in  peace, 
in  spite  of  his  condemnation  by  an  assembly  of  clerics — '  a 
council  of  asses,'  as  he  called  them.  Too  much  importance 
must  not  be  attached  to  his  outspoken  utterances.  In  his 
extremer  opinions,  especially  as  regards  the  invocation  of 
saints,  he  stood  almost  alone.  But  in  his  fight  against  cur- 
rent superstition  he  was  supported  by  another  Spaniard, 
Agobard,  archbishop  of  Lyons  (t840).  Agobard  was 
an  abler  man,  of  more  statesmanlike  spirit,  and  of  more 
commanding  influence,  who  not  only  attacked  images 
and  the  like,  but  popular  customs,  such  as  the  ordeal  by 
fire  or  water,  and  the  wager  of  battle,  to  which  even  theo- 
logians like  Hincmar  had  assigned  a  sacramental  value. 
How  modem  is  his  spirit  is  seen  in  his  rebuke  of  Fredigis, 
abbot  of  Tours,  for  the  '  absurdity  '  of  holding  that  the 
words  of  Scripture  are  inspired ;  its  sense  is  no  doubt 
divine,  but  its  form  is  human. 

Another  of  the  Caroline  controversies — the  addition  of 
the  Filioque  to  the  Nicene  Creed,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  the  East — has  produced  more  lasting  results.  The 
clause  came  to  the  Frankish  theologians  from  Spain,  whose 
Church  had  been  involved  in  a  struggle  with  the  Gnosticism 
of  Priscillian,  and  with  the  militant  Arianism  of  its  Visi- 
gothic  invaders.  The  struggle  resulted,  as  is  so  often  the 
case,  in  the  hardening  of  dogma  by  the  conquerors.  The 
opposition  to  Arianism  expressed  itself  in  the  claim — an 
implicit  but  logical  consequence,  as  Augustine  pointed  out, 
of  the  unity  of  the  Godhead — that  the  Holy  Spirit  held 
to  the  Son  a  relation  in  no  whit  diverse  from  that  which  He 
held  to  the  Father.  In  447  Bishop  Turibius  of  Astorga 
received  from  Pope  Leo  the  Great  the  sanction  of  this 
doctrine,  which  is  also  mentioned  in  a  confession  of  faith 
given  that  same  year  by  a  synod  at  Toledo.  When  in  689 
King  Reccared  and  his  subjects  abjured  Arianism,  the 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  143 

Spanish  bishops  presented  to  him  a  creed  with  the  words 
*  et  Filio '  added,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition  of  the  council 
of  Chalcedon  against  any  innovation.  From  Spain  the 
addition  made  its  way  to  southern  Gaul,  and  was  there 
incorporated  into  the  symbol  now  known  as  the  Athanasian 
Creed.  This  symbol,  probably  composite  in  character 
and  Frankish  in  origin,  took  its  present  shape  certainly  not 
earlier  than  the  sixth  century,  possibly  a  little  later. ^  In 
680  the  clause  was  accepted  in  England  by  Theodore  of 
Tarsus  at  the  synod  of  Hatfield.  In  781  the  seventh 
Ecumenical  Council  (the  second  of  Nicaea),  under  the  lead 
of  the  patriarch  Tarasius,  approved  of  the  Greek  formula, 
the  procession  from  the  Father  through  the  Son  (Ik  rov 
nar/aos  Si  a  tovYIov),  and  Pope  Hadrian  i.  had  not  challenged 
the  decision.  But  in  809  the  theologians  of  the  court  of 
Charles  formally  requested  that  the  Western  formula 
Filioque  should  be  incorporated  in  the  Creed.  With  his 
usual  independence,  Charles  had  already  introduced  the 
clause  into  the  symbol  as  chanted  in  the  imperial  chapel 
at  Aachen.  But  in  spite  of  the  pressure  of  the  Franks, 
Hadrian's  successor,  Leo  ni.,  though  assenting  to  the  doc- 
trine, was  too  cautious  to  estrange  the  Eastern  Church  by 
any  official  pronouncement.  Even  as  late  as  880  the  papal 
legate  at  Constantinople  still  subscribed  to  the  older  form 
of  the  Nicene  symbol,  nor  is  it  known  how  or  when  the 
clause  was  formally  admitted  by  Rome. 

The  date  and  manner  are  of  little  consequence;  the  effects 
were  the  same,  though  the  final  catastrophe  arose  from  the 
personal  ambition  and  violence  of  one  man.  In  857  the 
supple  Photius  supplanted  the  austere  Ignatius  as  patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  and  appealed  to  Pope  Nicholas  i. 
for  recognition.  On  hearing  of  the  enormities  by  which 
Photius  had  procured  his  elevation,  Nicholas  excommuni- 
cated him  (865).  Photius  met  the  anathema  with  arraign- 
ing the  Roman  Church  for  heresy  and  schism,  especially  by 
1  Harnack,  H.D.  iv.  p.  134  ff.    See  also  supra,  p.  71. 


144    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

the  insertion  of  the  Filioque  in  the  Nicene  symbol.  In 
879  a  synod  of  Constantinople,  under  the  presidency  of 
Photius,  launched  anathemas  against  all  who  should  coun- 
tenance this  addition.  The  revolt  of  the  Eastern  Church 
culminated  in  the  definite  schism  in  1054  under  the  patri- 
arch Michael  Caerularius.  As  one  result  of  the  Crusades, 
attempts  were  made  to  bring  East  and  West  together  once 
more,  and  at  a  council  at  Bari  (1098)  the  Greek  bishops 
tried  to  reopen  the  question.  On  behalf  of  the  Western 
Church,  the  dispute  was  taken  up  by  Anselm  in  his  De 
Processione  SpiritiLS  Sancti.  The  unity  of  the  Godhead, 
Anselm  maintained,  demands  that  whatever  is  predicable 
of  God,  as  such,  must  also  be  predicable  of  the  Three 
Persons,  save  so  far  as  their  individual  characteristics  may 
prevent.  Either  then  the  Son,  if  begotten  of  the  Father,  is 
also  begotten  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  else  in  proceeding  from 
the  Father  the  Spirit  proceeds  also  from  the  Son.  As  the 
first  assumption  must  be  dismissed,  we  are  driven  back 
upon  the  second,  and  thus  secure  the  procession  from 
the  unity  of  the  Godhead.  The  procession  is  not  from 
the  Father  and  Son  as  distinct  persons,  as  in  the 
Greek  doctrine,  but  from  one  God  who  is  both  Father 
and  Son. 

The  logic  of  Anselm,  though  formally  correct,  was  of  no 
avail.  Deeper  forces  than  theology  kept  East  and  West 
apart.  Twice  did  the  Eastern  Church  acknowledge,  or 
appear  to  acknowledge,  the  validity  of  the  Western  ad- 
dition ;  once  on  its  definition  by  Clement  iv.  at  the  second 
council  of  Lyons  (1274)  ;  again  in  1439  at  Florence. 
Nevertheless,  the  two  churches  are  still  apart,  and,  so  far  as 
can  be  foreseen,  there  is  no  likelihood  of  their  being  brought 
together  except  indeed  by  the  operations  of  that  same 
Holy  Spirit  over  the  technical  definition  of  whose  '  proces- 
sion *  they  have  split  asunder. 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  146 

IV 

From  this  survey  of  the  great  controversy  begun  or 
accentuated  by  the  action  of  Charles  the  Great  we  must 
return  to  another,  to  which  the  title  of  Adoptionism  has 
been  given  from  its  chief  position,  '  the  Son  adoptive  in  His 
humanity  but  not  in  His  divinity.'  This  heresy  was  by  no 
means  new.  We  have  already  pointed  out  its  existence 
in  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  in  Ebionite  writings,  in  Theodore 
of  Mopsuestia,  and  in  Nestorius.^  Latin  translations  of 
the  works  of  Theodore  in  all  probability  were  carried  to 
Spain.  In  the  eighth  century  these  gave  rise  to  Adoption- 
ism, strictly  so-called,  assisted,  possibly,  by  the  tendency 
of  the  Mohammedan  rulers  of  Spain  and  of  the  East  to 
patronise  Nestorian  rather  than  orthodox  Christians,  in 
this  following  the  example  of  Mohammed  himself. 

The  heresy  in  its  Spanish  form  arose  with  Elipandus, 
archbishop  of  Toledo  (c.  780),  but  was  more  clearly  taught 
by  his  younger  ally,  Felix,  bishop  of  Urgel,  the  charm  of 
whose  character  was  acknowledged  by  his  opponent, 
Alcuin  of  York.  In  his  teaching  we  find  the  emphasis  of 
the  reahty  of  the  human  nature  of  Jesus,  with  all  its  limi- 
tations, including  the  defilement  of  the  Fall.  The  raising 
of  this  human  nature  (assumptio  hominis)  to  the  divine, 
Elipan.us  and  Felix  called  '  adoption,'  from  a  word  in 
common  use  in  the  Mozarabic  liturgy.  The  Son  of  Man, 
urged  Felix,  has  two  births  :  a  natural  birth  of  the  Virgin  ; 
a  spiritual  birth  by  '  adoption,'  begun  in  His  Baptism, 
completed  by  the  Resurrection.  Thus  the  Son  of  Man 
became  the  Son  of  God  not  by  nature  but  by  grace.  The 
unity  of  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man  was  preserved 
by  the  ejgo  of  the  Son  of  God  being  the  true  ego  of  the  Son 
of  Man.  Nevertheless,  Adoptionism  "  ultimately  implies 
the  independence  and  juxtaposition  of  two  personal  beings 
moving  in  parallel  lines,  but  never  really  united."  ^  When 
1  See  supra,  pp.  76,  76.  *  Ottley,  op.  eit,  ii  p.  160. 

K 


146   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  I'D  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Felix  was  summoned  before  the  council  of  Regensburg 
(792),  Charles  the  Great  deemed  his  defence  unsuccessful, 
and  sent  him  to  Rome.  There  he  signed  a  recantation  ; 
but  this,  on  his  return  to  Urgel,  he  recanted,  and  fled  to 
Toledo  to  the  Saracens.  On  the  appeal  of  Elipandus  that 
Felix  should  be  reinstated,  Charles  summoned  a  council 
at  Frankfurt  (794).  After  much  discussion,  in  which 
Alcuin  took  part,  Felix  made  a  fresh  recantation.  He 
was  received  back  into  the  Church  at  Aachen  (799),  but 
detained  at  Lyons  for  the  rest  of  his  days.  After  his  death 
Agobard  published  certain  of  his  papers,  which  showed  that 
his  recantation  had  been  far  from  complete.  Adoptionism 
itself  speedily  perished.  This  was  inevitable,  for  its  main 
idea  of  the  natural  body  of  Jesus  was  in  vital  conflict  with 
the  prevailing  Eucharistic  conceptions,  in  which  the  body  of 
Christ  was  regarded  as  the  mystic  omnipresent  Host,  the 
principle  of  eternal  life.  Even  if  the  conception  had  been 
more  logical  and  orthodox,  even  if  it  had  won  greater 
approval  from  theologians,  popular  sentiment  would  have 
decreed  its  doom.  In  passing  we  may  note  that,  since  the 
suppression  of  Adoptionism,  Spain  has  contributed  nothing 
to  Christian  thought,  unless  we  count  the  transformation 
by  the  Jesuits  of  religion  into  military  obedience. 

The  Caroline  age  is  specially  notable  for  the  hardening 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist.  The  belief  in  the  real 
presence  of  the  King  of  Kings  in  the  consecrated  wafer,  and 
in  the  power  mysteriously  given  by  the  imposition  of  hands 
to  the  lowest  priest  to  work  this  stupendous  miracle,  had 
overawed  and  tamed  the  rudest  barbarians.  Whatever 
be  its  theological  truth,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
medieval  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  had  accomplished 
wonders  for  civilisation  where  a  more  spiritual  conception 
might  have  failed.  Now  the  Middle  Ages  were  powerless 
to  realise  an  idea  without  turning  it  into  the  concrete.  Of 
Christ  and  the  saints  they  must  have  visible  images.  By 
a  sort  of  logical  inversion  they  went  one  step  further. 


▼I.]  THE  DARK  AGES  147 

Where  the  image  was,  there  was  the  spirit ;  thus  the  image 
became  the  vehicle  of  grace,  possessing  not  only  sanctity 
but  Ufe,  while  the  spiritual,  on  the  contrary,  was  constantly 
assuming  form  and  colour.  To  the  most  subtle  spiritual 
influences  the  medieval  mind  would  have  applied  literally 
the  words  of  St.  John  :  '  That  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes  and  our  hands  have  handled.'  Equally  real,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  the  conviction  that  the  material  was  but 
the  veil  or  covering  of  the  spiritual.  That  the  spiritual 
could  be  apprehended  by  the  senses  was  an  axiom  of  faith, 
as  also  the  belief  that  the  senses  alone  could  never  exhaust 
or  even  understand  the  spiritual  meanings  of  the  material. 
As  yet  men  had  not  attempted  to  compress  into  defi- 
nitions and  syllogisms  the  supreme  mystery  of  their  faith. 
But  in  844  Paschasius  Radbert,  a  monk  of  New  Corvey, 
brought  out  a  monograph  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ,  which  marks  an  era  in  the  development  of 
doctrine.  Radbert,  a  learned  and  constructive  theologian, 
familiar  with  Greek  theology  and  Augustinianism,  at- 
tempted to  put  the  current  faith  upon  a  more  philosophical 
basis.  He  starts  with  claiming  that  faith  is  always  related 
to  the  invisible ;  the  believer  must  ever  withdraw  into  the 
invisible  world.  For  the  unbeliever  the  virtus  sacramenti 
does  not  exist ;  Christ's  flesh  cannot  be  eaten  except 
through  faith.  But  for  the  believer  Christ's  flesh  is  the 
nourishment  of  both  soul  and  body  for  immortality,  our 
flesh  being  renewed  by  it  into  corruption.  Up  to  this 
point  there  is  nothing  in  the  views  of  Radbert  to  distin- 
guish his  teaching  from  that  of  St.  Augustine  or  John 
of  Damascus.  His  importance  lies  in  his  introduction  of 
the  idea,  though  not  the  name,  of  transubstantianism.^ 
Though  the  sensuous  appearances  remain  unchanged,  the 
bread  becomes  the  veritable  Body  of  Christ.     The  sensuous 

1  The  word  transubstantiation  seems  to  have  been  first  casually  used  by 
Hildebert  of  Tours  at  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  See  Migne, 
P.  L.  clxxi.  p.  776. 


148    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    FcH. 

appearances  thus  become  the  symbols  of  a  spiritual  essence 
or  reality,  to  the  apprehension  of  which  faith  alone  can 
rise.  Thus  Radbert  unites  the  Augustinian  emphasis  of 
faith  with  the  Greek  conception  of  the  reality  prior  to  all 
faith.  Radbert  owns  that  his  theory  involves  the  constant 
repetition  by  God  of  a  stupendous  miracle.  But  to  the  men 
of  his  age  the  miraculous  was  the  commonest  occurrence 
of  daily  life,  a  necessary  result  from  their  conception  of 
God's  will  as  absolutely  arbitrary  and  without  law — the 
miraculous  and  the  arbitrary  are  always  connected. 

Radbert  was  opposed  by  Ratram  and  Rabanus  Maurus. 
To  the  question  of  Charles  the  Bald  whether  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ  were  actually  received  in  the  mouth 
of  communicants,  Ratram  replied  in  a  work  that  was 
at  an  early  date  ascr  bed  to  John  the  Scot.  He  main- 
tained that  the  wafer  was  the  memorial  of  the  spiritual 
body  existing  under  the  veil  of  the  material  ;  that  which 
lies  on  the  altar  was  not  the  historical  body  of  Christ,  but 
only  the  mystery  of  the  body,  an  interpretation  that  is  even 
more  strikingly  expressed  by  John  the  Scot  in  his  exposition 
of  *  Dionysius.'  But  on  inquiry  as  to  what  then  the  believer 
actually  receives,  we  find  that  the  question  is  left  un- 
answered, or  rather  is  wrapped  up  in  undefined,  even  contra- 
dictory, statements  that  at  times  remind  us  of  Zwingli,  at 
other  times  come  close  to  Radbert.  One  thing  alone  is 
clear,  the  emphasis  that  Ratram,  and  even  more  strikingly 
John  the  Scot,  would  lay  upon  faith.  If  in  this  Ratram 
coincides  with  Radbert,  he  differed  from  him  in  his  refusal 
to  look  upon  the  Eucharist  as  a  constant  miracle  against 
nature,  instead  of  being  in  harmony  with  the  spiritual 
world  behind  the  phenomenal. 

The  fact  that  Radbert  left  most  questions  unsolved,  or 
even  untouched,  in  nowise  lessened  his  influence.  He  had 
opened  up,  or  rather  expressed  dogmatically,  views  which 
coincided  with  popular  belief  and  desire,  while  his  unsolved 
difl&culties  allured  the  thought  of  generations  of  students. 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  149 

By  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  the  medieval  doc- 
trine of  the  Mass  became  firmly  established,  both  as  a 
popular  institution  and  as  a  fundamental  theory  of  the 
schools.  To  the  developments  that  the  doctrine  assumed 
later  we  shall  return. 

The  ferment  of  the  times  is  also  seen  in  Gottschalk's 
revival  of  an  unconditional  doctrine  of  predestination. 
Gottschalk,  a  monk  of  Orbais  in  the  province  of  Rheims, 
condemned,  against  his  desire,  to  the  monasticism  into  which 
he  had  been  forced  as  a  child,  taught  the  doctrine,  which  he 
claimed  to  have  found  in  St.  Augustine,  of  the  predestina- 
tion of  both  the  wicked  and  the  good.  But  the  growth  of 
the  sacerdotal  system  in  the  medieval  Church  made  this 
extreme  form  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination  an  impossi- 
bility. For  if  saint  and  sinner  were  already  predestinated, 
of  what  use  were  the  intercessions  of  saints,  or  even  the 
Eucharistic  sacrifice  ?  For  if  all  is  immutable  decree,  there 
is  neither  need  nor  logic  in  prayer,  penance,  or  worship. 
These  things  are  but  the  idle  beatings  of  the  wings  against 
the  prison  bars.  The  Eucharist  itself  becomes  powerless, 
as  Gottschalk  owned,  '  for  those  who  perish.' 

Such  a  doctrine,  as  its  later  developments  in  Geneva 
show,  inevitably  struck  at  the  power  of  the  priest.  The 
extremer  Augustinian  doctrine  thus  revived  by  Gottschalk 
was  therefore  rejected  by  the  Latin  Church,  not  because  of 
the  inhumanity  which  such  a  doctrine  appears  to  the  present 
age  to  possess — squeamishness  on  that  head  was  still  far 
distant — nor  even  because  its  ultimate  issue  was  to  make 
the  life  and  atonement  of  Jesus,  at  best,  a  work  of  super- 
erogation, but  in  the  interests  of  its  priestly  orders.  Con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  medieval  theologians  were  driven 
to  the  limitation  of  election  to  the  good  ;  in  the  case  of  the 
wicked  election  became  foreknowledge  only.  But  when 
his  opponents,  chief  of  whom  were  Rabanus  Maurus  and 
Hincmar  of  Rheims,  founded  their  doctrine  of  the  election 
of  the  saved  on  the  divine  prescience  of  their  '  right  use  of 


150   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

grace,'  they  overlooked  the  fact  that  in  his  extreme  anti- 
Pelagianism  Augustine  had  really  cut  away  any  logical 
basis  for  '  right  use  of  grace.'  Logically  or  not,  semi- 
Pelagianism  was  necessary  for  a  sacerdotal  sacramental 
church,  as,  in  fact,  Gregory  the  Great  had  already  seen. 
So,  first  at  the  council  of  Mainz  (848),  then  at  the  synod 
of  Quierzy  (849),  Gottschalk  was  condemned,  cruelly 
scourged,  and  imprisoned  until  his  death  (869)  in  the 
monastery  of  Hautvilliers.  But  the  controversy  which  he 
had  revived  touched  issues  too  vital  for  the  life  and  thought 
of  the  Church,  to  be  thus  easily  quashed. 


Among  the  opponents  of  Gottschalk  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  thinkers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  or  for  that  matter 
of  any  age,  John  Scotus  Erigena,^  the  last  representative 
of  the  Greek  spirit  in  the  West,  and  one  of  the  earliest  torch- 
bearers  in  the  long  line  of  Christian  mystics.  In  the  final 
words  of  his  chief  work  John  the  Scot  tells  us  all  that  we 
really  know  of  his  life  :  '  Nothing  else  is  to  be  desired  except 
the  joy  that  comes  from  truth  ;  nothing  is  to  be  shunned 
except  its  absence.'  Somewhere  about  the  year  847  John 
the  Scot  drifted  from  Ireland,  and  settled  at  the  court  of 
that  patron  of  scholars,  Cliarles  the  Bald.  His  opposition 
to  Gottschalk's  predestination  sprang  from  a  bold  develop- 
ment of  his  Neoplatonic  ontology.  In  his  tract,  De  Pre- 
destinatione  (851),  written  at  the  instance  of  Hincmar, 
John  claimed  that  true  religion  and  true  philosophy  are 
identical.  True  philosophy  rests  on  the  basis  of  the  unity 
of  God,  *  who  is  the  totality  of  all  things  which  are  and 
which  are  not,  which  can  and  which  cannot  be.'  To  con- 
ceive of  predestination  to  evil  is  thus  to  conceive  a  duality 

»  I  have  kept  the  common,  but  less  accurate,  name  of  Erigena  instead  of 
Eriugena,  'the  Erinborn.'  As  Dr.  Poole  has  pointed  out,  Erinn,  less 
accurately  Erin,  is  the  dative  case  of  Eriu,  the  old  name  for  Ireland.  The 
datire  has  supplanted  the  nominative. 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  161 

in  the  divine  nature,  or  of  some  power  above  God  deter- 
mining His  will.  But  the  will  of  God  is  absolutely  free  ; 
and  man,  as  created  in  His  image,  must  possess  the  same 
freedom.  Sin  is  simply  the  negation  of  good,  i.e.  of  '  being,' 
for  Erigena  claims  that  there  can  be  no  '  being  '  without 
'  goodness.'  Its  punishment  is  not  imposed  from  without, 
but  is  the  inner  necessity  or  nemesis  of  sin  itself,  the  con- 
sciousness of  lacking  good.  '  The  loss  of  Christ  is  the 
torment  of  the  whole  creation,  nor  do  I  think  that  there  is 
any  other.'  But  as  all  things  proceed  from  good,  so  in 
good  must  they  all  be  reabsorbed.  Sin  exists  merely  in 
time,  and  can  have  no  material  punishment  in  the  eternal. 

The  views  of  John  the  Scot,  when  they  depart  from  the 
teaching  of  Augustine,  were  naturally  too  daring  for  an  age 
that  cared  little  or  nothing  for  philosophy.  At  the  synod 
of  Valence  (855)  they  were  condemned  as  '  Scot's  porridge,' 
and  the  abjuration  of  his  '  barbarous  barking  '  was  repeated 
at  the  synod  of  Langres  (859) .  Both  synods  also  showed  their 
sympathy  with  Gottschalk  by  reaffirming  the  double  predes- 
tination, though  careful  to  avoid  the  question  whether  or 
not  God  willed  to  save  all  men.  That  they  were  conscious  of 
the  contradiction  thus  involved  between  the  creed  and  life 
of  the  Church  is  seen  in  their  further  contention  that  in  the 
Sacraments  of  the  Church  '  nothing  is  futile  or  delusive.' 

Erigena's  activity  was  by  no  means  limited  to  this 
controversy.  In  his  important  work,  originally  written 
in  Greek,  but  translated  into  Latin  under  the  title  De 
Divisione  Naturae,  John  the  Scot  unfolds  a  system  of  Neo- 
platonic  mysticism,  in  which  we  mark  his  indebtedness 
to  his  study  of  'Dionysius.'  The  supreme  nature,  he  holds, 
is  absolute,  and  cannot  be  described  by  any  categories. 
In  this  sense  God  is  'nihilum,'  and  can  only  be  expressed  by 
alternate  affirmation  and  negation — this  method  is,  in  fact, 
the  keynote  of  all  John's  philosophy,  and  the  solution  of 
many  of  his  difficulties — and  manifests  itself  in  a  series 
of  '  theophanies,'  of  which  the  number  is  as  many  as  the 


152   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

number  of  saintly  souls.  From  this  it  follows  that  the 
universe  is  an  eternal  divine  procession,  the  reality  of  which 
is  found  in  the  Divine  Ideas.  Creation  is  the  necessary 
self-realisation  of  God,  the  passage  from  the  eternal  ideas  to 
their  appearances  under  the  mental  conditions  of  time  and 
space.  As  such  it  finds  its  meeting-place  in  the  twofold 
nature  of  Christ,  whose  incarnation  is  the  expression  of  the 
eternal  connection  of  the  ideal  and  the  real,  of  the  immanent 
relation  of  God  and  the  world,  '  the  visible  and  the  in- 
visible.' ^  By  this  supreme  '  theophany  '  the  whole  ani- 
mated creatjon  '  is  restored  and  recalled  to  unspeakable 
unity,  now  in  hope,  hereafter  in  fact.*  '  Everything  shall 
return  into  God  as  air  into  light.'  Such  '  restoration  '  is 
not  difficult,  for  matter,  as  such,  has  no  existence,  save  in 
our  thoughts,  as  the  '  concourse  of  the  accidents  of  being.' 
Scot  holds  further  tha£  the  notion  of  being  existing  in  the 
human  mind  is  the  substance  of  being  itself — a  remarkable 
anticipation,  following  St.  Augustine,  of  the  famous  argu- 
ment of  Descartes.  Evil  is  but  the  accident  of  material 
existence ;  it  marks  the  transition  from  the  world  of 
thought  to  that  of  matter  ;  it  is  the '  shadow  of  some  virtue,' 
and  will  cease  when  man  returns  to  the  primal  unity. 

In  his  statement  of  the  relation  of  reason  and  authority 
John  is  not  less  daring.  Authority  is  secondary  to  Reason, 
to  which  it  is  related  as  species  to  genus.  Reason  is  not 
only  the  dwelling-place  of  the  *  word  '  of  God  ;  it  is  itself 
a  *  theophany,'  the  revelation  of  God  to  man,  and  a  sure 
guide  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  Not  less  emphatic 
is  his  protest  against  the  current  conception  of  total  de- 
pravity ;  even  in  the  wicked  the  '  natural  goods,'  in  which 
they  were  created,  cannot  be  taken  away.  The  universal 
tendency  is  upward,  '  for  the  divine  goodness,  which  ever 
worketh  not  only  in  the  good  but  also  in  the  wicked,  is 
eternal  and  infinite.  .  .  .  Our  nature  is  not  fixed  in  evil. 
It  is  ever  moving,  and  serves  naught  else  but  the  highest 

^  Cf.  JohD  i.  3,  6  yiyov€Vy  iv  airr^  ^(aij  Ijp,  to  adopt  the  older  punctuation. 


▼l]  the  dark  ages  153 

good,  which  is  both  its  source  and  end.'  The  pantheistic 
bias  of  much  of  Erigena's  writings  is  perhaps  exaggerated 
by  not  paying  due  regard  to  his  method  of  reasoning  by 
successive  antinomies.  His  doctrine  of  the  immortahty  of 
the  individual,  the  permanence  of  the  spiritual  self  'without 
any  confusion  or  destruction  of  essence/  is  fatal  to  any 
pantheistic  disappearance  in  a  '  general  soul.'  But  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  in  connection  with  the  controversy 
raised  by  Amalric  of  Bena,  stress  was  laid  on  this  danger 
of  parts  of  Scot's  work,  and  the  book,  after  being  con- 
demned by  the  council  of  Paris  in  1209,  was  suppressed  by 
Honorius  iii.  (1225)  because  of  its  '  abominable  heresy.' 

To  his  own  generation,  and  to  the  three  centuries  that 
followed,  John  the  Scot  was  unintelligible,  when  not  un- 
known. He  was  too  much  of  a  Greek  to  have  any  hold 
upon  a  barbarian  age.  His  influence,  such  as  it  was,  was 
due  almost  wholly  to  his  translation  of  the  writings  cur- 
rently attributed  to  Dionysius  the  Areopagite. 

Few  writers  have  exercised  greater  influence  upon  the 
life  and  thought  of  the  centuries  than  '  Dionysius  the  Areo- 
pagite '  ;  few  stories  of  literary  pseudonym  have  obtained 
larger  acceptance.  In  the  general  desire  of  the  various 
countries  to  date  back  the  foundation  of  their  Christianity 
to  apostolic  times,  France  created  the  myth  of  Dionysius, 
or  rather  procured  the  acceptance  of  a  myth  already 
created.  Though  with  more  plausibility  Gaul  might  have 
claimed  Mary  Magdalene  or  Trophimus  as  the  first  to  intro- 
duce Christianity  into  the  Arelate,  it  preferred,  possibly 
by  the  confusion  of  some  actual  but  obscure  hero  of  the 
faith,  to  find  its  apostle  in  the  Areopagite,  who  was  buried, 
according  to  popular  tradition,  in  the  abbey  (St.  Denis)  to 
which  he  had  given  his  name.  The  actual  date  is  unknown 
of  the  writing  of  the  bold  forgery — if  by  this  harsh  modem 
name  and  idea  such  common  literary  form  of  seeking 
greater  authority  should  be  called — but  cannot  have  been 
earlier  than  the  fifth  century.     The  earliest  mention  of 


154    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

the  writings  of  Dionysius  occurs,  it  would  appear,  in  the 
records  of  a  conference  held  at  Constantinople  in  533,  when 
their  genuineness  was  challenged  by  the  Severians,  a  sect 
of  the  Monophysites.  '  These  so-called  works  of  the  Areo- 
pagite,'  they  said,  '  were  unknown  to  Cyril  and  Athanasius, 
and  if  no  one  of  the  ancients  quoted  them,  how  can  you 
establish  their  truth  ?  '  Early  in  the  sixth  century  they 
were  turned  into  Syriac  by  the  Aristotelian  physician 
Sergius.  In  the  next  century  they  found  a  zealous  editor 
and  defender  in  the  '  confessor  '  Maximus  (580-662).  By 
the  close  of  the  ninth  century,  in  spite  of  attacks,  the  works 
of  Dionysius  were  generally  accepted  as  genuine  by  the 
Greek  Church. 

In  the  Western  Church,  though  casually  referred  to  by 
Gregory  the  Great,  and  quoted  in  the  acts  of  the  Lateran 
Synod  of  660,  the  writings  of  Dionysius  were  long  unknown. 
Occasional  copies  were  found ;  for  instance,  in  757  Pope 
Paul  I.  sent  the  works  of  Dionysius  to  Pippin.  Their  in- 
fluence, however,  was  slight  until  in  827  the  Greek  Emperor, 
Michael  the  Stammerer,  sent  a  copy  as  a  present  to  Lewis, 
the  son  of  Charles  the  Great.  The  arrival  of  these  books 
at  the  royal  abbey  of  St.  Denis,  on  the  feast-day  of  its 
sainted  founder,  was  marked  by  nineteen  miracles.  The 
translation  of  the  Greek  into  Latin  by  John  the  Scot,  at 
the  command  of  Charles  the  Bald  (t860),  introduced  to  the 
Western  world  the  teaching  of  Dionysius,  and  the  sub- 
limity of  the  '  heavenly  mysteries '  with  which  he  dealt. 
Erigena's  translation,  it  is  true,  did  not  escape  suspicion, 
owing,  probably,  to  the  estranged  relations  between  the 
Churches  of  East  and  West,  and  the  daring  verses  affixed 
to  the  work  extolling  the  glories  of  Greece  at  the  expense 
of  Rome.  Scot's  translation  was  followed  by  two  other 
versions,  one  in  the  twelfth  and  the  other  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  as  also  by  numerous  commentaries,  some  of  these 
by  the  leading  scholars  of  the  times.  Such  was  his  influence 
over  Aquinas  that  four  folio  pages  are  needed  to  tabulate 


▼I.]  THE  DARK  AGES  166 

the  references  to  Dionysius  in  his  Summa.  Alone  of  the 
Schoolmen,  Abailard,  who  identified  Dionysius  with  the 
historical  bishop  of  Corinth,  hesitated  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  this  manifest  pseudonym,  the  exposure  of  which  by 
Laurentius  Valla  was  amongst  the  earliest  results  of  the 
Renaissance,  though  the  printing  of  Grosseteste's  commen- 
tary (1235)  at  Strassburg  in  1503  showed  the  tenacity  of 
the  old  belief.  But  with  the  overthrow  of  the  myth,  that 
they  were  the  writings  of  an  inspired  apostle,  the  work  was 
forgotten.  Its  rediscovery  is  one  of  the  results  of  recent 
historical  theology. 

The  student  who  to-day  turns  over  the  pages  of  Dionysius 
is  in  danger  of  being  misled  by  their  wordy  froth.  But 
beneath  their  wild  symbolism,  concealed  by  their  meta- 
physical jargon,  there  is  a  basis  of  truth  and  the  throb  of 
a  living  experience.  The  Dionysian  writings  were  prob- 
ably composed  by  the  Edessene  school.  They  bear  marks 
of  the  Monophysitism  that  characterised  so  much  Syrian 
speculation.  They  also  acknowledge  indebtedness  to 
'  Hierotheus,'  the  assumed  name  of  a  mystic  monk  of 
Edessa,  Stephen  bar  Sudaili,  who  wrote  towards  the  close 
of  the  fifth  century,  giving  himself  out  as  a  convert  of 
St.  Paul  and  instructor  of  the  real  Dionysius.  Dionysius 
gives  us  a  philosophy  of  Being,  the  nature  of  which  is 
indicated  by  his  title,  The  Heavenly  Hierarchy.  Step  by 
step  we  pass  by  measured  stages  and  successive  manifes- 
tations from  the  Absolute  to  the  Absolute.  What  we  see 
is  but  a  part  of  a  vast  scheme,  the  visible  and  invisible  parts 
of  which  are  strictly  connected,  a  '  Jacob's  ladder ' — the 
idea  is  taken  from  Hierotheus — linking  earth  with  heaven. 
In  this  ascent  to  the  One,  participation  in  whom  is  a 
universal  condition  of  Being,  sense-perceptions  have  a 
sacramental  value,  inasmuch  as  even  '  things  inanimate ' 
partake  of  '  fellowship  with  the  super-essential  and  all- 
efficient  Godhead.'  But,  above  all,  this  communion  is 
shared  by,  this  illumination  bestowed  on  the  angels — under 


156    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

this  Christian  title,  and  their  different  orders  and  degrees, 
the  details  of  which  are  borrowed  from  Hierotheus,  we 
recognise  the  old  system  of  emanations — whose  nine  ranks, 
or  stages  in  the  '  progression  '  of  divine  revelation,  exercise 
upon  men  a  beneficent  influence,  which,  however,  may  be 
fatally  resisted.  '  To  be  made  divine,  as  far  as  may  be, 
and  to  be  made  one  with  God,  is  the  common  end  of  any 
hierarchy,'  one  means  for  the  attaining  thereof  being  the 
Holy  Eucharist,  or  '  the  feast  of  the  Beatific  Vision.' 

In  the  most  important  of  his  treatises.  On  the  Divine 
Names,  Dionysius  deals  with  the  mystery  of  the  One  and 
the  Many ;  with  the  relation  of  partial  being  to  the 
Absolute,  of  God  to  time  and  eternity,  and  with  the  pro- 
blem of  the  nature  of  evil.  The  details  of  his  reasoning 
would  exceed  our  limits.  Here  and  there  we  meet  with  an 
answer  with  a  strangely  modem  ring,  as  in  his  distinction 
between  time  and  eternity  :  '  Things  that  are  are  expressed 
by  eternity  ;  things  which  become  by  time.'  For  the  most 
part,  however,  though  the  Bible  is  the  professed  starting- 
point,  they  are  adaptations  of  Neoplatonism  "  slightly 
sprinkled  with  baptismal  water  from  a  Christian  font."  ^ 
Evil,  for  instance,  Dionysius  tells  us,  does  not  exist ;  '  all 
things  so  far  as  they  are  deprived  of  the  good  are  neither 
good  nor  existent,'  a  necessary  outcome  of  his  lyeoplatonist 
position  that  the  '  ideal '  is  the  only  real.  As  Browning 
puts  it  in  his  ^6<  Vogler  : 

**  There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good  !     What  was  shall  live  as 

before. 
The  evil  is  null,  is  naught,  is  silence  implying  sound ; 
What  was  good,  shall  be  good,  with,  for  evil,  so  much  good 

more; 
On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs;  in  the  heaven  the  perfect 

round." 

Even  the  devils  *are  called  bad  because  of  weakness  in 

1  B.  Jontt,  Mystical  Religion,  p.  110. 


VI.]  THE  DARK  AGES  167 

respect  of  their  natural  energy.*  Every  creature  is  good 
up  to  the  limits  of  its  capacity.  Whatever  is,  is  only  by 
the  inherence  of  His  presence  ;  whatever  becomes,  becomes 
by  the  communication  of  His  presence.  In  every  form  of 
life  there  is  this  participation  in  the  one  life.  The  end  of 
all  knowledge  is  to  rise  above  the  conditioned,  in  other 
words  the  definite,  into  the  unconditioned  and  absolute. 
As  the  '  hidden  and  nameless  '  Absolute  cannot  be  known, 
it  is  only  by  '  love  '  that  this  can  be  accomplished.  As 
Colet  paraphrases  it :  '  Whoso  loveth  God  is  known  of 
Him.  Ignorant  love  has  a  thousand  times  more  power 
than  cold  wisdom  '  ;  but  the  '  love  '  of  which  Dionysius 
wrote  has  no  idea  of  projection  out  of  itself — it  would  never 
have  founded  a  school  for  boys.  The  Atonement,  as  is 
so  customary  with  Neoplatonic  speculations,  is  reduced 
to  the  deliverance  of  being  from  the  negative  influences  of 
disorder  and  failure.  The  conception  of  reconciliation  is 
thus  altogether  absent,  our  Lord  becomes  our  example 
rather  than  a  '  sacrifice  for  sin.'  In  consequence,  we  search 
the  pages  of  Dionysius  in  vain  for  any  doctrine  of  grace. 

The  writings  of  Dionysius  are  essentially  Eastern  and 
Greek.  There  is  little  in  them — if  we  leave  out  the  one 
conception  of  a  celestial  hierarchy  with  its  antitype  on 
earth — that  is  in  sympathy  with  the  ruling  Latin  ideas. 
With  Dionysius,  as  with  the  Eastern  Church  of  all  ages, 
the  highest  conception  of  life  is  the  solitary  eremite ;  its 
monasticism  looks  to  the  Thebaid  and  not  to  Monte  Cassino 
for  inspiration.  Hence  doctrine  and  the  organised  life  of 
the  Church  are  regarded  as  on  a  lower  level  than  mystical 
experience.  They  only  give  relative  knowledge.  But  by 
experience  we  are  brought  into  contact  with  things  that 
transcend  mind,  when  by  *  a  resistless  and  absolute  ecstasy 
from  ourselves  we  are  carried  up  to  the  super-essential 
ray  of  the  *  Divine  Dark '  by  casting  away  all,  and  becoming 
free  from  all.'  Even  Dionysius'  treatment  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, though  detailed,  is  mystical ;    there  is  little  that 


168   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

leant  itself  to  the  materialistic  conceptions  of  the  later 
Latin  Church.  Their  significance  is  considered  to  be  en- 
tirely subjective,  personal  experience  the  primary  fact  in 
religious  life.  In  his  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  moreover, 
there  was  no  place  for  the  priest.  The  power  of  binding 
and  loosing  is  dependent  upon  the  spiritual  communion  of 
the  ministry  on  earth  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  so  that  what 
is  already  bound  or  loosed  in  heaven  is  only  disclosed  on 
earth.  In  this  last  we  may  discern  the  influence  of  the 
Eastern  idea  of  pre-existence.* 

To  this  Greek  origin  and  colour  we  must  attribute  no 
small  importance.  At  a  time  when  the  treasures  of  Greek 
thought  were  lost  to  the  Western  world,  Dionysius  brought 
the  Latin  Church  into  touch  with  a  set  of  ideas,  so  foreign 
to  its  spirit  that  they  would,  probably,  have  received  no 
lodgment,  had  it  not  been  that  they  were  protected  by  an 
apostolic  name.  Their  place  in  medieval  thought  may, 
therefore,  be  likened  to  the  faults  and  flaws  in  some  geo- 
logical contour  ;  they  are  evidences  of  forces  long  since 
extinct,  the  visible  memorials  of  which  are  now  intruded 
into  alien  strata.  In  Dionysius  we  have  the  link  that  con- 
nects the  medieval  world  with  Proclus,  Plotinus,  and  other 
Greek  thinkers,  whom  the  medieval  Church,  if  only  it  had 
known  them,  would  have  excommunicated  or  burnt.  To 
this  Greek  atmosphere  we  must  attribute  the  attraction  of 
Dionysius  for  John  Colet,  the  English  scholar  of  the  New 
Learning,  as  well  as  for  Ficino  and  the  Neoplatonists  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance.^  In  art  we  find  that  the  Celestial 
Hierarchy  is  "on  all  points  relative  to  the  representation 
of  angels,  the  inexhaustible  mine  which  was  worked, 
directly  or  indirectly,  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  from  which  the  ideas  are  derived  which  are  even 

1  Supra,  p.  66. 

9  Colet's  abstract  or  translation  of  Dionysius  (Two  Treatise.^  on  the 
Hierwrchiea  of  Dionysius,  edited  by  J.  H.  Lupton,  1869)  was  published  in 
1497  (t)— Ficino's  in  1492  and  1496.  Three  other  of  Colet's  writings  show 
the  profound  influence  of  Dionysius  (see  Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformers, 
p.  60ff.). 


vil  THE  DABK  AGES  159 

to  this  day  current."  *  But  the  profoundest  influence  of 
Dionysius  was  over  the  medieval  mystics,  all  of  whom  came 
under  the  spell  of  his  thought.  His  celestial  ladder  was  one 
of  their  commonplaces  ;  his  One  Reality  above  all  know- 
ledge the  object  of  their  search.  Above  all,  they  adopted 
his  method  of  '  contemplation '  passing  into  '  ecstasy.' 
But  to  this  we  shall  return.^ 

1  J.  Fowler,  Works  of  Bionysius  in  Relation  to  Christian  Art  (Sacristy, 
February  1872).  Probably  the  words  in  the  Communion  Office,  **  Therefore 
with  angels,  etc. ,"  should  be  traced  to  the  Celestial  Hierarchy ,  vii.  2  (i.e.  p.  10). 

«  Infra,  p.  192. 


160   CHKISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE  RENAISSANCE   OF  THE  ELEVENTH   AND  TWELFTH 
CENTURIES 

Argument 

§  I.  Close  of  the  Dark  Ages— Sylvester  ii. — Hildebrand 
— Development  of  Canon  Law — Gratian's  Decre- 
tum — Effect  of  Canon  Law  upon  thought — Berengar 
and  Lanfranc — Transubstantiation        .         .    pp.*  161-167 

(§  II.  Scholasticism — Greatness  of  the  Schoolmen — Defects 
of  Scholasticism — Piety  and  Knowledge — Nomi- 
nalism and  Realism ppj  167-172 

§  III.  Anselm — His  a  priori  argument — Gaunilio's  reply 
— Anselm  on  Free  Will — His  Cur  Deus  Homo 
— Its  argument — After  history  of  the  argument — 
Thomas  Aquinas  and  Duns  Scotus        .        .pp.   172-178 

§  IV.  St.  Bernard— Gilbert  de  la  Porr^e— Bernard's  Mysti- 
cism       '    .        .     '  .     pp.   178-181 

§  V.  Abailard — His  grea  tnessahd  importance — His  views 
of  inspiration^  sin,  and  the  Atonement— His  Con- 
ceptualism — Comparison  of  Anselm,  Bernard,  and 
AbaiUrd pp.   181-187 


vii.j  RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES     161 


The  two  centuries  that  followed  the  fall  of  the  empire  of 
Charles  the  Great  are  among  the  darkest  in  history.  The 
Holy  See  sank  to  the  lowest  depths  of  impotence  ;  popes, 
wretched  when  not  wicked  or  the  tools  of  infamous  women, 
rapidly  pass  across  the  stage — in  eight  years  eight  popes 
were  elected  and  overthrown  ;  shadowy  emperors  struggle 
for  the  rent  mantle  of  Charles  ;  over  all  a  deluge  of  barbar- 
ism, Saracens,  Huns,  Normans,  and  a  darkness  that  could 
be  felt.  Dean  Church  has  well  pointed  out  that  by  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century  "  Christian  teaching  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  leavened  society  at  all.  Its  influence  on 
individuals,  so  vast  and  astonishing,  was  no  measure  of  its 
influence  on  society  at  large.  It  acted  upon  it  doubtless 
with  enormous  force,  but  it  was  an  extraneous  and  foreign 
force,  which  destroys  and  stifles,  but  does  not  mingle  or 
renew."  The  traditions  of  society  at  large  were  still  un- 
diluted heathenism.  In  its  conflict  with  the  barbarians 
who  had  overwhelmed  the  degraded  Latin  civilisation 
Christianity  had  conquered,  yet  at  times  it  might  seem  as 
if  the  chief  result  had  been  to  make  barbarism  more  super- 
stitious, and  cruelty  more  ingenious. 

But  in  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  century  a  great  change 
passed  over  Europe,  culminating  in  the  intellectual  and 
religious  awakening  of  the  next  generation.  Everywhere 
men  aroused  themselves  from  despair  to  hope  and  enthu- 
siasm. In  this  new  birth  of  the  human  spirit  the  religion 
of  superstition,  which  had  hitherto  formed  the  ground- 
work of  authority  and  the  main  element  of  order  in  the 

L 


162    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

chaos  of  society,  began  to  shed  from  it  some  of  its  grosser 
elements.  It  was  fitting  that  the  new  era  should  open 
with  a  pope  who  would  have  been  remarkable  in  any  age, 
but  shines  out  like  a  solitary  torch  in  the  darkness  of 
that  night.  Gerbert  of  Aurillac,  Pope  Sylvester  n.  (999- 
1003),  was  the  stout  opponent  and  the  stout  asserter  of 
the  rights  of  Rome.  But  his  political  actions,  though 
sufficiently  original,  were  the  least  part  of  his  claim  upon 
posterity.  This  austere  monk  was  the  most  learned  man 
of  the  day,  and  its  foremost  teacher.  Mathematician, 
scientist,  mechanician,  he  spent  his  nights  in  watching  the 
stars  from  a  tower  of  the  Vatican.  Naturally,  he  suffered 
the  fate  of  all  men  who  are  before  their  times.  But,  except 
in  the  dominion  of  science,  Gerbert  added  little  or  nothing, 
save  a  larger  outlook,  to  Christian  thought.  The  one  theo- 
logical work  commonly  ascribed  to  his  pen,  De  Corpore  et 
Sanguine  Domini,  is,  probably,  the  production  of  Heriger 
of  Lobbes. 

Nevertheless,  Gerbert  witnesses  to  the  new  life  already 
stirring  the  dry  bones  of  piety  and  thought.  The  centre  of 
that  new  life  was  found  in  the  great  monastery  of  Clugny. 
The  idea  which  underlay  the  work  of  a  series  of  able 
Clugniac  reformers,  among  whom  we  must  reckon  the 
greatest  of  the  popes,  the  illustrious  Hildebrand  (Gre- 
gory VII.,  1073- 1086),  was  the  government  of  the  world  by  a 
Church  purified  by  being  brought  under  monastic  discipline 
and  infused  with  the  monastic  spirit.  The  effect  of  Hilde- 
brand's  policy  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  Church  belongs 
more  strictly  to  history.  It  must  suffice  that  we  note  that 
in  the  intellectual  world,  as  well  as  in  the  world  of  action, 
for  over  a  century  after  the  rise  of  Hildebrand,  the 
monastic  ideal  prevailed.  But  towards  the  close  of 
the  twelfth  century  the  intellectual  vitality  of  monasti- 
cism  became  exhausted,  while  the  revival  of  the  ideals 
overthrown  by  Hildebrand  led  to  the  transfer  of 
thought  and  ^ucation  from  the  cloister  to  the  secular 


VII.J   RENAISSANCE  OF  lira  AND  12th  CENTURIES     163 

universities.  The  leader  in  this  momentous  revolution 
was  Abailard.  . 

There  was  another  direction  in  which  the  triumph  of 
Hildebrand's  policy  influenced  Christian  thought.  We 
allude  to  the  development  of  the  law  systems  of  the  Church. 
From  the  first  the  Church  had  stood  outside  the  Teutonic, 
law  system.  "  In  the  early  days  of  the  Frank  dominions 
the  churches  hved  under  Roman  law.  For  one  thing,  the 
Christian  emperors  had  legislated  pretty  freely  on  ecclesi- 
astical matters  long  before  the  Teutons  were  converted  to 
Christianity  ;  and  the  Merovingians  could  hardly  venture 
to  meddle  wdth  the  organisation  of  that  mighty  power 
which  had  destroyed  their  ancient  gods,  and  done  so  much 
to  give  them  the  victory  over  their  enemies.  For  another, 
the  churches  were  corporations  ;  and  it  took  the  Teutonic 
mind  a  long  time  to  grasp  the  highly  complex  notion  of  a 
corporation."  ^  So  from  the  fall  of  the  Empire  onward 
we  have  the  Church  with  a  law  of  her  own,  and  necessarily, 
therefore,  courts  and  punishments  of  her  ow^n,  living  in  the 
midst  of  Celtic  or  Teutonic  tribes  in  which  law  was  a 
matter  of  the  clan  or  fief.  In  all  Western  Europe  the  only 
law  that  was  not  local  or  territorial  was  the  '  common  law,' 
as  it  was  called  everywhere  except  in  England,  i.e.  the 
universal  law  of  the  Roman  Church. 

The  law  of  the  Church  was  at  first  the  Roman  code 
modified  by  such  enactments  of  councils  as  had  received 
imperial  sanction.  But  when  the  popes  stepped  into  the 
place  of  emperors,  the  Church  of  the  West  quietly  re- 
pudiated the  system  which  had  been  her  foster-mother, 
and  substituted  in  its  place  the  canons  of  councils  and  the 
case-law  of  the  popes.  Charles  the  Great,  it  is  true,  in  his 
general  revival  of  older  traditions  reduced  the  Church  once 
more  under  the  control  of  the  State,  but  in  this,  as  in  much 
else,  he  was  both  before  and  behind  his  age.  The  wide 
recognition  within  a  few  years  of  his  death  of  the  authority 

1  E.  Jenks,  Law  and  Politics  in  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  27. 


164   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

of  the  pseudo-Decretals — the  boldest  and  most  successful 
forgery  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  ^ — shows  the  real  drift 
of  the  times.  From  Pope  Nicholas  i.  (858-867)  onwards 
the  law  of  the  Church  is  neither  the  old  Roman  juris- 
prudence nor  the  Capitularies  of  Charles  the  Great — codes, 
in  fact,  which  in  the  general  anarchy  sank  almost  into 
obhvion — but  the  papal  system  of  decretals  and  canons. 

With  the  triumph  of  Hildebrand's  ideals  it  became 
necessary  to  codify  the  law  of  the  Church,  for  if  the  Church 
was  to  govern  the  world  the  law  of  the  Church  must  be 
clear  and  distinct.  Hitherto  this  law  had  been  gathered 
from  a  chaos  of  papal  rescripts,  conciliar  canons,  and  civil 
enactments.  But  the  renaissance  of  culture  in  Italy 
early  in  the  twelfth  century  took  expression  in  a  renewed 
study  of  Roman  law.  Bologna,  long  noted  as  a  school  of 
liberal  arts,  became  under  the  teaching  of  Imerius  (1100- 
1130)  the  great  university  for  the  study  of  the  Code  and 
Pandects  of  Justinian.  The  advantages  which  the  Empire 
of  the  Hohenstaufen  derived  from  this  possession  of  a 
definite,  venerable  system,  in  which  the  Emperor  was  re- 
cognised as  the  fountain  of  all  authority,  impressed  upon 
the  papal  jurists  their  want  of  a  similar  code.  In  the 
Concordia  Discordantium  Canonum  (1142)  of  Gratian,  a 
monk  of  Bologna,  the  Church  found  the  exact  instrument 
she  needed.  In  this  work  Gratian  applied  to  the  materials 
collected  by  a  succession  of  canonists  the  scientific  method 
of  Abailard.  Influenced  by  the  success  of  Abailard's 
Sic  et  Non,  Gratian  presents  his  reader  with  the  authorities 
on  both  sides  of  every  question.  The  Decretum  of  Gratian, 
to  give  the  book  its  more  familiar  title,  at  once  supplanted 
all  rivals,  and  became  the  recognised  text-book  of  the 
schools.  The  importance  of  the  work  cannot  be  exagger- 
ated. The  Decreium  is  one  of  those  books,  not  necessarily 
great  in  themselves,  which  sweep  aside  all  rivals  because 

1  This  forgery  has  recently  b^en  shown  to  hare  been  the  work  of  priests  in 
Touraine. 


VII.]  RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES     165 

they  first  clearly  embody  certain  latent  tendencies  of  the 
age.  The  success  of  Gratian  led  Raymond  de  Penaforte 
in  1234  to  publish  for  Gregoiy  ix.  five  books  of  recent  De- 
cretals. These  were  followed  by  further  editions,  known 
as  Extravagants  and  Clementines  (1 31 8).  With  these  the 
golden  age  of  papal  legislation  came  to  an  end. 

The  effects  of  the  development  and  partial  triumph  of 
Canon  Law  upon  the  history,  both  ecclesiastical  and  secular, 
of  Europe  cannot  be  exaggerated.  But  the  disaster  for 
Christian  thought  has  sometimes  been  overlooked.  All 
questions,  ecclesiastical  and  theological,  became  subor- 
dinated to  legal  conceptions,  at  all  times  the  bane  of  the 
Latin  Church.  Faith  and  grace  became  secondary  to  or- 
dinance. The  spirit  of  the  jurist  governed  all  theology. 
Dogma  was  recast  under  the  categories  of  judge,  accused, 
satisfaction,  and  penalties.  With  his  usual  insight,  Luther 
saw  that  the  overthrow  of  the  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence 
of  the  Middle  Ages  was  a  prime  necessity  if  the  Augustinian 
doctrine  of  grace  was  ever  to  receive  its  old  place  in  the 
life  of  the  Church,  and  the  claims  of  the  papacy  to  be  over- 
thrown. When  he  cast  the  Decretals  into  the  flames  before 
the  doctors  and  populace  of  Wittenberg  (lOth  December 
1520),  Luther  claimed  more  than  his  civil  freedom  ;  he 
asserted  the  need  for  a  spiritual  theology  emancipated 
from  the  categories  of  the  law.  Jn  his  failure  to  see  this 
great  blot  upon  medieval  theology  we  find  the  chief  weak- 
ness of  Calvin,  as  also  the  evidence  of  the  continuity  of  his 
position  in  general  with  that  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  quickened  thought  of  the  age  of  Hildebrand  mani- 
fested itself  also  in  the  reopening  of  the  Eucharist  contro- 
versy by  Berengar  of  Tours  (flOSS).  Led  on  by  pride  of 
intellect,  or  by  keener  spirituality,  Berengar,  the  head  of 
the  cathedral  school  in  Tours,  protested  against  the  current 
materialistic  conceptions  of  the  Real  Presence.  These  left 
out  all  the  refinements  in  the  doctrine  of  Paschasius  Rad- 
bert,  and  declared  that  the  consecrated  wafer  was  a  physical 


166    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

portion  of  the  body  of  Christ  '  as  bora  of  the  Virgin  Mary  * 
*  broken  by  the  hands  of  priests  and  chewed  by  the  teeth  of 
the  faithful.'  The  watchword  of  orthodoxy  was  '  vere  et 
sensiuiUter.^  Berengar,  adopting  the  standpoint  of  Ratram,^ 
though  with  much  greater  precision,  declared  that  the 
Real  Presence  was  but  spiritually  conceived  and  received. 
The  popular  doctrine  he  held  to  be  contrary  to  reason  or 
'  the  image  of  God  wherein  we  were  created.' 

Berengar's  chief  opponent  was  Lanfranc.^  Lanfranc 
repeated  in  a  hardened  form  the  arguments  of  Paschasius 
Radbert.  But  Paschasius  would  not  have  approved  of  his 
elimination  of  all  faith  by  his  affirmation  that  even  sinners 
eat  the  true  body  of  Christ  in  spite  of  themselves,  a 
development  which  did  more  than  anything  else  to  materi- 
alise the  Eucharist.  In  spite  of  the  attacks  of  Lanfranc, 
Berengar  succeeded  in  maintaining  his  position  until  the 
second  Lateran  Council  (1059)  gave  him  the  choice  of  death 
or  recantation.  "  Logic,"  says  Milman  sententiously, 
"  makes  no  martyrs  "  ;  and  for  a  time  Berengar  yielded. 
Twenty  years  later  Berengar  once  more  retracted,  but 
through  the  clemency  or  personal  sympathy  of  Hilde- 
brand,  after  abjuration,  was  dismissed  without  further 
penalty.  In  spite  of  his  vacillations  Berengar  is  entitled 
to  this  praise  :  he  had  set  the  whole  world  thinking, 
questioning,  and  disputing.  One  result  of  this  dialectic 
tournament  must  not  be  overlooked.  When  Guitmund  of 
Aversa  maintained  that  the  whole  Christ  was  in  every 
particle,  the  foundation  was  laid  for  the  practice,  developed 
later  by  Aquinas  into  a  dogma,  that  the  blood  was 
contained  in  the  consecrated  wafer,  and  that  therefore 
the  cup  could  be  withheld  from  the  laity.  The  issue  of 
the  controversy  was  seen  in  the  passing  by  the  fourth 
Lateran  Council  (1215)  of  the  dogma  of  transubstantiation : 

»  Supra,  p.  148.     As  was  usual  at  the  time,  Berengar  thought  Ratram'i 
work  was  oy  Erigena. 
«  Born  about  1006  at  Pa?ia  ;  1070  archbUhop  of  Canterbury  ;  died  10S9. 


VII.]  KENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    167 

*  The  body  and  blood  (of  Christ)  are  truly  contained  in  the 
sacrifice  of  the  altar  under  the  appearance  of  bread  and 
wine,  the  bread  being  transubstantiated  into  the  body, 
and  the  wine  into  the  blood  by  divine  power.* 


n 

Whether  in  monastery  or  university,  whether  dealing 
with  law  or  theology,  medieval  thought  is  known  to-day 
as  Scholasticism.  The  reader  misled  by  current  tradition 
or  frightened  by  the  unattractive  tomes  in  which  scholars 
buried  their  thoughts,  will  enter  upon  the  study  of  Scho- 
lasticism with  hesitation,  if  not  aversion.  He  has  probably 
thought  of  the  Schoolmen  as  idle  babblers,  making 
bricks  without  straw,  erecting  stupendous  syllogisms 
upon  foundations  of  sand.  We  must  beware  of  despising 
the  ladder  whereby  we  have  climbed.  No  age,  how- 
ever emancipated,  can  afford  to  disdain  the  thoughts 
and  struggles  of  the  ages  that  preceded  it.  Ignorance 
may  scorn,  but  a  more  humble  wisdom  will  ever  reahse 
that  the  Schoolmen  were  no  ordinary  men.  "  In  the  chilly 
squalor  of  uncarpeted  and  unwarmed  chambers,  by  the 
light  of  narrow  and  unglazed  casements  or  the  gleam  of 
flickering  oil-lamps,  poring  over  dusky  manuscripts  hardly 
to  be  deciphered  by  modem  eyesight,  undisturbed  by  the 
boisterous  din  of  revelry  and  riot  without,  men  of  humble 
birth  and  dependent  on  charity  for  bare  subsistence,  but 
with  a  noble  self-confidence  transcending  that  of  Bacon 
or  Newton,  thought  out  and  copied  out  those  subtle  master- 
pieces of  medieval  lore,  purporting  to  unveil  the  hidden 
laws  of  Nature,  as  well  as  the  dark  counsels  of  Providence 
and  the  secrets  of  human  destiny,  which,  frivolous  and 
baseless  as  they  may  appear  under  the  scrutiny  of  a  later 
criticism,  must  still  be  ranked  among  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments of  speculative  reason."  ^ 

1  Brodrick,  Memorials  of  Merton,  p.  35. 


168    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

A  definition  of  Scholasticism  is  almost  impossible.  But 
certain  features  may  be  pointed  out  which  mark  off  Scholas- 
ticism from  modem  thought.  In  the  first  place,  we  must 
beware  of  supposing  that  Scholasticism  was  neither 
scientific  nor  critical ;  for  it  was  both,  at  any  rate  in  its 
intention.  Scholasticism,  by  its  insistence  on  reason, 
marks  the  distance  that  the  Latin  Church  has  travelled  since 
Tertullian's  *  Credibile  est,  quia  ineptum  est,' — '  I  believe 
because  it  is  absurd.'  ^  Scholasticism  was,  in  fact,  the 
effort  of  the  thought  of  the  age  to  arrange  itself  under  such 
scientific  conditions  and  forms  as  it  possessed.  Its  weak- 
ness did  not  lie  in  its  contempt  for  the  scientific  spirit,  but 
rather  in  its  daring  assumption  of  the  all-sufficiency  of  its 
method,  its  refusal  to  step  outside  the  charmed  circle  of  its 
system.  By  means  of  his  logic,  with  its  intricate  formalism, 
the  schoolman  constructed  a  complete  scientific  system, 
which,  however,  knew  neither  the  limitations  of  observation 
nor  the  fetters  of  induction.  The  analytical  power  of  lan- 
guage was  mistaken  for  the  interpretation  or  discovery  of 
facts.  The  consequent  want  of  correction  of  deductive 
dialectics  led  to  a  dogmatism  in  the  end  disastrous  both 
for  faith  and  knowledge.  The  schoolman  was,  if  possible, 
even  more  certain  of  the  truth  than  the  materialistic  dis- 
believer of  a  more  scientific  generation.  To  the  one  to 
doubt  was  as  certain  to  be  lost,  as  to  the  other  to  believe 
is  to  be  intellectually  damned. 

Another  result  of  the  absence  of  any  adequate  obser- 
vation of  the  external  world  was  the  absorption  of  all  forms 
of  thought  and  knowledge  within  Tlieology.  To  the 
schoolman  Theology  was  even  more  than  the  queen  of 
sciences  ;  it  was  really  the  science  of  science,  inasmuch  as 
it  dealt  with  the  relation  of  all  things  to  God.  Unfortun- 
ately, as  this  view  was  not  sufficiently  guarded,  the  results 
were  disastrous.  AH  science  became  ecclesiastical  in  out- 
look and  origin.     Even  Geography  resolved  itself  into  an 

>  See  supra,  p.  105. 


VII.]   RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    169 

a  priori  study,  the  basis  of  which  was  not  the  mariner's 
compass,  but  the  Bible.  Men  found  the  maps  of  the  times 
in  the  tabernacle  of  Moses,  for  this  formed  the  only  possible 
model  of  the  globe.  To  imagine,  said  one  writer,  that  the 
world  is  round  would  be  '  to  abolish  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
the  future  state,  and  to  make  of  none  effect  the  resurrection 
of  Christ.'  ^  In  the  same  spirit  St.  Augustine  had  started 
the  controversy  as  to  the  effect  of  the  Fall  upon  stars  and 
vegetables,  and  on  the  atmospheric  changes  due  to  angels. 
Modern  science  cannot  sufficiently  express  its  contempt 
for  the  vast  superstructure  which  the  schoolmen  raised 
on  their  narrow  and  flimsy  foundations.  Modem  hermen- 
eutics  cannot  sufficiently  condemn  a  method  of  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures  which  took  no  account  of  time, 
circumstance,  development,  or  history.  Nevertheless,  that 
strange  system  which  repels  us  to-day  was  in  a  true  sense 
preparing  the  way  for  better  things. 

A  third  feature  of  Scholasticism  is  summed  up  in  the 
phrase  pectus  facit  theologum  ;  theology  is  the  affair  of  the 
soul.  Hence  it  follows  that  if  theology  is  the  basis  of  all 
knowledge,  personal  piety  must  be  one  of  the  presup- 
positions of  science.  In  theology  proper  this  expressed  it- 
self in  the  position  of  St.  Augustine,  reasserted  by  Anselm's 
credo  ut  intelligam,  that  faith  must  ever  be  the  foundation  of 
dogma.  Ihe  extensions  of  this  idea  are  of  considerable 
importance.  For  there  was  no  way  in  which  medieval 
piety  could  better  express  itself  than  in  ascetic  contem- 
plation. Hence  the  development,  under  the  help,  no 
doubt,  of  other  factors,  of  Scholasticism,  or  the  attempt 
to  view  things  as  a  whole  in  their  relation  to  God,  into 
Mysticism,  or  the  knowledge  through  '  contemplation '  of 
such  relation. 

Scholasticism  thus  possessed  certain  features  which  gave 
it  unity.  Nevertheless,  the  divisions  and  developments  of 
Scholasticism  proper  must  not  be  overlooked.     In  the  first 

1  See  details  in  Beazley's  interesting  Davm  of  Modern  Geography,  vol.  i. 


170    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

period,  as  in  the  Dark  Ages  before  Scholasticism,  though 
portions  of  Aristotle  were  known,  we  note  the  prevalence 
of  the  so-called  Platonic  Realism,  chiefly  derived  from 
St.  Augustine.  "  The  relation  of  philosophy  to  theology 
in  the  initial  period  of  Scholasticism  was  essentially  difiierent 
from  what  it  was  at  its  maturity.  In  the  earlier  periods 
a  proper  philosophic  system,  a  view  of  the  world  developed 
on  different  sides,  had  as  yet  no  existence.  Only  logic  was 
known  with  some  completeness.  As  a  distinct  discipline 
metaphysics  did  not  exist  for  the  philosophers  of  that 
period.  What  they  had  of  it  consisted  in  single  pro- 
positions, partly  Platonic,  partly  Aristotelian."  ^  In  the 
second  period  Scholasticism  obtained  full  possession  of  the 
writings  of  Aristotle,  both  of  his  logical  and  physical 
treatises.  In  consequence  theologians  attempted  the  con- 
struction of  systems  of  thought  passing  beyond  formal 
logic  into  metaphysics,  and  a  complete  view  or  summa  of 
the  world.  But  the  treatment  of  this  second  period  must 
be  reserved  for  another  chapter. 

The  changing  outlook  of  Scholasticism  as  it  passed  from 
the  predominance  of  Realistic  Platonism  to  Aristotelianism 
corresponded  inevitably  with  the  varying  fortunes  of  the 
great  battle  over  Universals,  which  in  popular  thought  it 
identifies  with  Scholasticism  itself.  In  the  earlier  period 
Realism  was  predominant ;  in  the  later,  Nominalism  waged 
a  more  equal  warfare.  In  the  days  of  its  triumph  Realism 
condemned  Nominalism  as  a  heresy,  and  was  in  its  turn 
condemned  by  it.  The  never-ending  controversy  formed  for 
centuries  the  central  question  of  education  and  theology ; 
its  ceaseless  tournaments  drew  crowds  of  eager  students  to 
the  lecture  halls  of  the  masters.  The  precise  problem  in- 
volved cannot  be  better  put  than  in  the  famous  words  from 
the  Isagoge  of  Porphyry,  which  have  played  a  greater  part 
in  the  history  of  thought  than  any  outside  the  Bible  : 
*  Next  concerning  genera  and  species,  the  question  indeed 
1  Deutsch,  Abdlard,  p.  96. 


VII.]   RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    171 

whether  they  have  a  substantial  existence,  or  whether  they 
exist  in  bare  intellectual  concepts  only,  or  whether  if  they 
have  a  substantial  existence  they  are  corporeal  or  incor- 
poreal, and  whether  they  are  separated  from  the  insensible 
properties  of  the  things,  or  are  only  in  those  properties  and 
subsisting  about  them,  I  shall  forbear  to  determine.  For  a 
question  of  this  kind  is  very  deep,  and  needs  fuller  in- 
vestigation.' 

For  the  various  stages  and  opinions  in  this  long  contro- 
versy the  student  should  refer  to  the  histories  of  medieval 
logic.  But  there  are  certain  matters  of  general  moment 
connected  with  it  that  should  not  be  overlooked.  The 
reader  should  above  all  beware  lest  he  undervalue  this 
dispute.  There  are  few  matters  of  philosophical  discus- 
sion which  do  not  in  their  ultimate  analysis  involve  some 
aspect  of  the  controversy.  The  medieval  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  as  we  shall  see  later,i  is  inseparably 
wrapped  up  in  it :  "  Indeed  the  solution  of  the  most 
momentous  questions  to  which  the  human  intellect  can 
address  itself  is  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  solution 
of  a  question  which  '  common-sense '  will  undertake  to 
clear  up  in  five  minutes,  or  which  it  will  indignantly  pro- 
nounce too  trifling  to  be  asked  or  answered.  Yet  he  who 
has  given  his  answer  to  it  has  implicitly  constructed  his 
theory  of  the  universe."  ^  Those  who  imagine  that  there 
is  here  nothing  but  the  dust  of  the  past  should  remember 
that  of  Nominalism  "  the  sensationalist  scepticism  of 
Hume,  or  the  crude  materialism  of  Haeckel,  is  but  an 
illogical  attenuation."  ^  The  danger  of  Realism,  on  the 
contrary,  was  an  undeveloped  Pantheism.  God  is  regarded 
as  the  ultimate  substance,  the  entity  common  to  all  species, 
and  identical  in  each.  Such  a  view  must  ultimately  resolve 
all  existing  things,  and  all  individual  differences,  into  acci- 
dents of  the  summum  genus, 

i  Infra,  p.  236  «  Rashdall,  Univs.  in  Middle  Ages,  i.  p.  39. 

»  Ibid.  i.  p.  45. 


172    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  in  spite  of  all  the  objections  that 
may  rightly  be  urged  against  the  logical  positions  of  the 
thirteen  different  schools  of  Realism  which  Prantl,  in  his 
great  history  of  medieval  logic,  has  discriminated,  this 
much  may  be  said,  at  any  rate  about  the  more  moderate 
Realists,  that  their  Realism  was  a  protest  against  any 
doctrine  of  illusion.  They  held  that  mental  ideas  are, 
in  some  sense  of  the  word — in  the  explanation  of  this  lay 
their  difficulty — strict  realities.  Realism  was  their  protest 
against  the  question,  so  dear  to  a  diseased  subjectivism  : — 

Is  all  that  we  think  or  seem, 
But  a  dream  within  a  dream  ? 

Thus  their  Realism  was,  as  Carlyle  would  have  phrased 
it,  the  affirmation  of  the  Everlasting  Yea ;  the  emphasis 
of  a  doctrine  of  assurance.  The  medieval  thinkers  char- 
acteristically sought  this  assurance  in  reason  and  the 
objective  world  ;  religious  minds  to-day  sometimes  seek 
it  in  their  subjective  experiences.  Both  have  grasped  the 
half  only  of  the  complete  truth. 

in 

Though  Lanfranc  and  Berengar  must  be  regarded  as  the 
firfit-fruits  of  the  new  Scholasticism,  Anselm  *  more  than  any 
other  is  entitled  to  be  called  its  father.  As  the  great  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  to  whom  England  owes  the  subjec- 
tion of  its  Church  to  the  ideas  of  Hildebrand,  the  life  of  An- 
selm belongs  to  general  history.  His  place  in  the  history  of 
Christian  philosophy  is  of  equal  importance.  To  the  general 
tendencies  of  his  thought  it  will  be  more  convenient  to  re- 
turn after  dealing  with  Bernard  and  Abailard.  Meanwhile 
it  is  important  to  note  certain  special  details  of  his  writings. 

In  his  Monologion  de  DivinitcUis  Essentia,  Anselm  gives 

1  Born  at  Aosta  1033,  died  1109.  For  Anselm,  Abailard,  and  Bernard 
I  may  refer  for  further  detail  to  my  articles  in  Hastings'  Encyc. 
of  ReliyUm  and  Ethics^  toIi .  i.  and  ii. 


VII.]   RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    173 

us  the  famous  so-called  a  priori  proof  of  the  existence  of 
God,  which  has  thence  found  its  way  into  most  theological 
treatises,  ancient  or  modern.  This  argument  is  really  a 
Realist  application  of  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  Ideas  to  the 
demonstration  of  Christian  doctrine  by  a  logical  ascent 
from  the  particular  to  the  universal.  In  the  world  of  ex- 
perience we  are  confronted  by  transitory,  imperfect  pheno- 
mena which  invariably  lead  the  mind  upwards  toward  an 
eternal,  necessary,  perfect  Being.  Our  recognition  of 
goodness,  for  instance,  in  phenomena  drives  us  to  believe 
in  a  supreme  nature  that  is  good  per  se,  and  which  must  be 
the  final  causa  causans,  the  supreme  objective  reality  in 
whom  our  '  ideas '  inhere.  Thus  the  existence  of  God  is 
implicit  in  ordinary  experience. 

This  argument  was  further  developed  by  Anselm  in  his 
Proslogion,  so  called  because  it  is  in  the  form  of  an  address 
to  God.  In  this  work  Anselm  attempts  to  prove  the  exist- 
ence of  God  by  a  single  deductive  argument,  instead  of  as 
in  the  Monologion  by  a  long  inductive  chain.  The  fool's 
very  denial  of  God,  so  Anselm  argues,  involves  the  idea  of 
God,  and  of  this  idea  existence  is  a  necessary  part.  In 
other  words,  thought  leads  by  an  inherent  necessity  to  the 
postulate  of  the  Absolute.  When  Count  Gaunilio  (f  c.  1083), 
a  monk  of  Marmoutier,  pointed  out  in  his  Apology  for  a 
Fool  that  the  idea  of  the  fabled  Isles  of  the  Blessed  does 
not  prove  their  existence,  Anselm  replied  that  there  is  all 
the  difference  between  the  Summum  cogitabile  or  eternal 
necessary  idea  and  any  particular  empirical  idea  of  things 
which  had  a  beginning  and  will  have  an  end.  Contingent 
existence  as  such  contradicts  the  idea  of  the  Summum 
cogitabile,  which  carmot  be  conceived  save  as  existing. 

The  after  history  of  these  ontological  arguments,  in  part 
built  up  by  Anselm  upon  Augustine's  De  Trinitate,  belongs 
to  the  history  of  philosophy.^     But  we  may  point  out  that 

1  For  a  judicious  criticism,  see  John  Caird,  Phil,  of  Religion  (1880), 
p.  153  fif. 


174    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

they  were  too  Platonic  to  be  accepted  by  the  AristoteUan 
Schoolmen,  with  the  exception  of  Duns  Scotus.  They 
have  found  their  way  in  various  forms  into  the  systems  of 
Descartes,  Spinoza,  Leibniz,  and  Hegel,  but  have  been  re- 
jected by  Kant.  We  see  the  same  Platonic  outlook  in 
Anselm's  De  Veritate,  in  which  he  maintained  that  truth 
is  the  accurate  perception  of  the  archetypal  ideas  in  the 
mind  of  God. 

In  his  De  libero  Arbitrio,  Anselm  deals  with  the  problem 
of  free  will.  Freedom,  he  claims,  is  not  the  power  of 
choosing  between  alternatives,  but  of  persevering  in  righ- 
teousness for  its  own  sake — a  doctrine  afterwards  more 
fully  developed  in  Kant's  Metaphysic  of  Ethics.  Anselm 
pointed  out  that  original  sin  need  not  involve  total  de- 
pravity. Man  is  still  left  in  possession  of  a  real,  if  impaired, 
natural  freedom,  the  power  of  the  will  to  govern  motives. 

But  the  most  important  of  Anselm's  works  is  the  Cur 
Deus  Homo,  finished  at  Schiavi  in  the  Alban  Mountains  in 
1098.  This  little  book  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  Atonement.  Anselm  destroyed  once 
for  all  the  old  conception  that  the  Atonement  was  a  ransom 
paid  to  the  devil.  In  place  of  this  disastrous  dualistic 
doctrine  which  had  dominated  the  Church  since  the  days 
of  Origen — with  the  possible  exception  of  Faustus  of  Riez 
(fl.  500) — Anselm  put  forth  a  theory  of  the  Atonement  as 
the  satisfaction  rendered  to  the  honour  and  justice  of  Grod. 
Anselm  shows  by  deductive  reasoning  that  man  could  not 
have  been  saved  without  Christ.  All  the  actions  of  man 
are  due  to  God  for  the  promotion  of  His  honour.  But  sin 
has  defrauded  God  of  that  honour,  and  thereby  has  created 
a  debt  due  to  God.  As  the  lost  honour  must  be  restored, 
the  sinner  cannot  be  exonerated  of  his  debt  by  the  mercy 
or  fiat  of  God ;  for  this  were  to  let  sin  go  without  being 
brought  into  relation  with  the  righteousness  of  God.  But 
God's  honour  cannot  be  restored  by  further  obedience  ; 
for  this  is  due  in  any  case,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  a  dis- 


VII.]   RENAISSANCE  OF  Uth  AND  12th  CENTURIES    175 

charge  for  the  past  debt.  The  honour,  it  is  true,  may  be 
vindicated  by  punishment  which  exhibits  God's  supremacy, 
or  by  '  satisfaction/  i.e.  the  giving  back  to  God  more  than 
has  been  taken  away  by  the  sinner.  Such  satisfaction 
must  be  made  by  man  according  to  the  measure  of  his  sin  ; 
yet  for  man  this  is  impossible.  Hence  God  became  man 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  infinite  superabundant  merits — 
a  doctrine  very  congruent,  as  we  have  seen,  to  medieval 
developments  of  thought  and  practice — of  His  voluntary 
death  outweigh  the  number  and  greatness  of  all  sins. 

This  treatise  may  be  described  in  brief  as  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  relationship  between  God  and  man  in  the 
terms  of  the  Roman  law  familiar  to  Anselm.  Of  Teutonic 
law  it  is  probable  in  our  judgment  that  this  Italian  would 
know  little  or  nothing.  Anselm's  argument  has  produced 
a  lasting  effect  upon  subsequent  theology.  In  the  substi- 
tutionary form  stamped  upon  it  at  the  Reformation,  it  has 
remained  the  doctrine  of  much  evangelical  orthodoxy  to 
this  day.  "  The  Cur  Deus  Homo,^^  writes  Dr.  Denney, 
"  is  the  greatest  and  truest  book  on  the  Atonement  that 
has  ever  been  written."  ^  To  many  students  this  verdict, 
we  think,  will  seem  conventional  and  exaggerated.  The 
chief  service  Anselm  rendered  was  in  sweeping  away  the 
old  patristic  idea  of  the  debt  due  to  Satan,  and  in  this 
Anselm  seems  scarcely  aware  how  great  was  the  work  he 
accomplished.  In  spite  of  his  emphasis  of  the  moral 
necessity  of  the  Atonement  as  distinct  from  the  arbitrary 
fiat  of  the  Divine  Will,  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  or  the 
inversion  of  the  Fall ;  in  spite  of  the  stress  Anselm  places 
upon  '  satisfaction '  rather  than  punishment,  upon  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ  rather  than  upon  an  ecclesiastical 
and  penitential  system,  to  many  the  work  will  seem 
mechanical  and  unreal, ^  and  its  theory  to  be  limited, 
dangerous,  and  full  of  Scholastic  abstractions.     Anselm's 

1  J.  Denney,  The  Atonement  and  the  Modern  Mind,  p.  116. 
*  Cf.  Moberiy,  Atonement  and  Personality,  pp.  367-371. 


176   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

worst  fault  is  his  tendency  to  destroy  the  essential  ethical 
unity  of  the  Godhead  by  his  revival  of  the  old  Gnostic  * 
Dualism  within  the  Divine  Nature  itself  between  justice 
and  law,  and  his  emphasis  of  the  antagonism  between  the 
Son  and  the  Father  as  representatives  of  different  attri- 
butes, the  One  who  pays  and  the  One  who  exacts.  The 
theory  also  posits  an  opposition  between  God  and  the  ex- 
ternal world  which  ends  in  the  idea  of  arbitrariness  on  the 
part  of  God,  and  on  the  part  of  man  in  the  Absence  of  the 
consciousness  of  his  own  personality  as  an  essential  factor 
in  the  Atonement ;  this  last,  we  may  remark,  a  common 
defect  of  Scholastic  Realism.  With  Anselm  salvation  is 
almost  wholly  external  and  institutional,  corporate  rather 
than  experimental.  Thus  sin  becomes  "  high  treason,  not 
moral  corruption.  ...  It  remains  outside  the  human 
conscience  ;  it  is  indeed  a  great  fault,  but  it  is  hardly  a 
moral  fault."  ^ 

The  complete  absence  in  the  book  of  any  assurance  of 
salvation  is,  of  course,  thoroughly  medieval.  All  that 
Anselm  does  is  to  show  that  salvation  is  possible — the  rest 
was  always  left  to  the  Church.  Moreover,  the  theory 
absolutely  disregards  the  whole  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and  abstracts  the  Atonement  as  a  matter  of  Calvary  alone. 
"  This  God-man  need  not  have  preached  and  founded  a 
kingdom,  no  disciples  need  have  been  gathered  :  He  only 
required  to  die."  ^  That  Anselm  so  completely  ignores 
the  immanence  of  God  and  St.  Paul's  mystical  conception 
of  union  with  the  Risen  Christ  is  remarkable,  for  the  Pauline 
ideas  would  have  appealed  strongly  to  Anselm's  cast  of 
thought  if  he  could  have  freed  himself  from  his  feudal, 
fc^rensic  fetters.  But  instead  of  the  mysticism  of  St.  Paul 
we  have  the  superabundant  payment  by  Christ  of  a  debt 
due  from  man  to  the  justice  of  God,  which  debt,  by  reason 

1  Bigg,  Christian  PlatonistM  qf  Alexandria,  p.  290. 

*  StevenH,  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Salvation,  p.  242. 

•  Harnack,  H.L.  ri.  p.  76. 


VII.]  RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTUIUES    177 

of  his  original  sin,  man  cannot  discharge.  The  keynote  of 
the  treatise  is  thus  the  paradox,  '  man  must,  man  cannot.' 
Moreover,  Anselm's  theory  of  the  Incarnation  is  far  from 
satisfactory.  In  his  desire  to  avoid  conceptions  now  known 
as  kenotic  he  Hmits  the  sufferings  of  Christ  to  His  human 
nature :  '  The  Divine  Nature,  we  assert,  is  impassible.' 
Such  opposition  can  only  end  in  Nestorianism  ;  it  is  fatal 
to  any  true  conception  of  the  Person  of  Christ  as  the  unity 
of  the  God-man. 

The  influence  of  Anselm  upon  the  Scholastic  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement  is  of  great  importance  for  the  student  of 
theology.  As  regards  the  old  patristic  doctrine  of  ransom 
paid  to  the  devil,  Anselm's  refutation  was  decisive,  though 
shadowy  survivals  lingered  on,  sometimes  in  unexpected 
places.  His  idea  of  '  satisfaction '  was  widely  embraced, 
though  with  both  additions  and  subtractions,  as  for  in- 
stance by  Alexander  of  Hales,  who  made  much  of  the  added 
idea  of   '  equivalence,'   developing  thence  the  idea  of  a 

*  treasury  of  merit,'  the  basis  of  all  medieval  doctrines  of 
indulgence.  At  the  Reformation  Anselm's  idea  of  '  satis- 
faction '  became  predominant,  almost  banishing  the  Scrip- 
tural idea  of  '  sacrifice.'  Even  Luther,  who  detested  the 
idea  as  belonging  '  to  the  schools  of  the  jurists,'  was  forced 
to  retain  it ;   while  in  the  Anglican  liturgy  '  sacrifice  '  and 

*  satisfaction '  were  indissolubly  linked  together  in  the 
familiar  phrase,  'A  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice, 
oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.' 

In  Thomas  Aquinas  we  have  the  fullest  acceptance  by 
any  schoolman  of  Anselm's  doctrine.  Nevertheless,  there 
are  differences.  Aquinas  dwells  at  some  length  on  the 
superabundant  '  satisfaction  '  of  Christ's  death.  But  in 
so  doing  he  is  not  prepared  wholly  to  accept  Anselm's 
attempt  to  justify  the  crude  dogma  of  Augustine  that  sin 
against  an  infinite  God  is  necessarily  infinite  in  character. 

*  The  acts  of  the  creature  as  such,'  he  allows,  even  when 
sins,  '  cannot  be  infinite,'  though  he  owns  that  they  have  a 

M 


178   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION     ch. 

*  sort  of  infinitude.'  His  conception  of  the  obedience  of 
Christ  which  gave  '  satisfaction '  is  also  wider,  for  it 
extends  not  merely  to  the  death  but  to  the  whole  life  and 
suffering  of  Jesus.  Aquinas  owns,  what  Anselm  always 
denied,  that  God  could  have  pardoned  sin  without  any 
satisfaction.  To  Aquinas  the  position  of  Anselm  seems 
a  limitation  of  the  absolute  freedom  of  divine  onmipotence 
as  to  choice  of  means.  But  the  greatest  difference  is  in 
the  approach  by  Aquinas  to  a  substitutionary  theory  of  the 
Atonement,  the  transference  of  the  merit  of  the  atoning 
work  to  the  sinner,  not  as  in  Reformation  theology  by 
imputation,  but  by  his  mystical  union  with  the  Redeemer. 
The  chief  opponent  of  Anselm  among  the  Schoolmen 
was  Duns  Scotus.  His  contribution  to  soteriology  is  his 
repudiation  of  Anselm's  position  that  the  Atonement  was 
the  motive  of  the  Incarnation.  Christ,  he  claims,  would 
have  come  even  if  man  had  not  sinned,  for  only  by  His 
Incarnation  could  He  be  the  head  of  the  Mystical  Body. 
As  with  much  else  in  Duns'  theology,  the  '  merit '  of  Christ's 
death  depends  almost  wholly  upon  the  arbitrary  fiat  of 
God  ;  for  the  merit  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  could  only 
be  finite,  inasmuch  as  Christ  suffered  in  His  human  not  in 
His  divine  nature.  Nevertheless,  this  nominal  satisfaction 
is  accounted  by  God  as  infinite.  Thus  a  good  angel,  or 
even  a  sinless  man,  could  equally  well  have  secured  the 
plan  of  redemption.  Duns  Scotus  calls  this  theory  of  thus 
accepting  something  as  the  imaginary  equivalent  of  a 
contract  accepHlatio,  a  familiar  term  in  Scots  civil  law 
to  this  day.  The  acceptilatian  theory  of  Duns  has  had 
considerable  influence  on  later  theology,  especially  on 
Grotius.* 

IV 

The  importance  of  St.  Bernard  (1090-1153)  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  cannot  be  exaggerated.    For  a  few  years  the 

1  D.  W.  Simon,  7%e  Redemption  qf  Man,  pp.  20-28,  418-416. 


vil]  renaissance  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    179 

centre  of  Christendom  was  virtually  transferred  from  Rome 
to  Clairvaux.  As  a  theologian,  the  influence  of  Bernard 
was  always  thrown  against  all  change  or  progress.  In  his 
antagonism  to  all  that  Abailard  represented,  in  his  belief 
that  the  application  of  dialectic  to  theology  was  both 
dangerous  and  impious,  Bernard  was  the  refuge  of  a  re- 
actionary school  destined  to  be  swept  away  by  the  rise  of 
Scholasticism.  In  later  years  his  hatred  of  heresy  became 
almost  a  monomania.  As  his  contemporary,  Otto  of 
Freising,  tells  us,  '  Bernard  was,  from  the  fervour  of  his 
Christian  religion,  as  jealous  as  from  his  habitual  meekness 
he  was  in  some  measure  credulous ;  so  that  he  held  in 
abhorrence  those  who  trusted  in  the  wisdom  of  this  world, 
and  were  too  much  attached  to  human  reasonings  ;  and 
if  anything  alien  to  the  Christian  faith  were  said  to  him 
in  reference  to  them  he  readily  gave  ear  to  it.'  Hence  a 
want  of  fairness  in  dealing  not  only  with  Abailard  but  with 
Gilbert  de  la  Porree.  Gilbert  (tll54)  who,  according  to  his 
learned  contemporary,  John  of  Salisbury,  '  was  a  monk  of 
the  clearest  intellect  and  of  the  widest  reading,  in  culture 
surpassed  by  none,'  had  published  a  commentary  on  the 
De  Trinitate,  a  collection  of  treatises  currently  assigned  to 
Boethius.  In  this  work  Gilbert,  by  distinguishing  '*  God  " 
from  "  Deity  "  (in  which  last  he  found  the  universal  that 
his  Realism  demanded),  had  laid  such  stress  on  the  absolute 
unity  of  the  Trinity  as  almost  to  exclude  the  existence  of 
the  Three  Persons.  At  the  council  of  Rheims  (March  1148) 
Gilbert  was  put  on  his  defence  before  Bernard's  pupil. 
Pope  Eugenius  m.  Bernard's  attack  ended  in  complete 
failure,  or  rather  in  a  measure  of  victory  for  freedom  of 
thought.  When  Eugenius  proposed  that  Gilbert's  com- 
mentary should  be  handed  over  to  him  that  he  might  erase 
whatever  was  needful,  Gilbert  claimed  that  it  was  his  own 
duty  to  erase  what  was  amiss,  a  declaration  received  with 
loud  applause  by  the  cardinals.  The  council  ended  with  the 
Pope's  mysterious  ruling, '  that  the  essence  of  God  should 


180    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

not  be  predicated  in  the  sense  of  the  ablative  case  only, 
but  also  of  the  nominative '  !  and  Gilbert  returned  '  with 
his  honour  unabated  to  his  own  diocese.' 

The  most  lasting  contribution  of  Bernard  to  the  thought 
of  the  age  lies  in  his  mysticism.  The  most  important  of 
Bernard's  mystical  writings  is  his  Homilies  on  the  Song  of 
Solomon.  They  were  actually  preached  to  the  monks  of 
Clairvaux,  and  still  bear  signs  of  interruptions  and  other 
local  circumstances.  The  mysticism  of  Bernard  is  really 
not  systematic,  but  the  outcome  of  his  persuasion  that 
faith  receives  all  truth  '  wrapped  up  '  (involutum) .  All 
that  reason  can  do  is  to  add  clearness  by  a  certain  limited 
measure  of  unwrapping  ;  for  the  highest  knowledge  is  that 
which  comes  not  by  intellect  but  by  intuition  or  spiritual 
vision.  Of  this  there  are  three  stages,  the  highest  of  which 
is  '  contemplation.'  "  The  great  importance  of  Bernard 
in  the  history  of  Mysticism  does  not  lie  in  the  speculative 
side  of  his  teaching,  in  which  he  depends  almost  entirely 
upon  Augustine.  His  great  achievement  was  to  recall 
devout  and  loving  contemplation  to  the  image  of  the 
crucified  Christ,  and  to  found  that  worship  of  our  Saviour 
as  the  '  Bridegroom  of  our  Soul,'  which  in  the  next  cen- 
turies inspired  so  much  fervid  devotion  and  lyrical  sacred 
poetry."  ^  In  this  connection  we  must  not  overlook  the 
influence  of  the  Crusades,  in  whose  development  Bernard's 
preaching  had  proved  so  potent  a  factor.  In  the  nobler 
crusaders,  e.g.  in  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  we  see  the  moral 
power  that  sprang  from  the  realisation  of  the  suffering 
Saviour.  **  Salve  caput  cruentatum  "  ('*  O  Sacred  Head  once 
wounded  !  ")  was  for  the  crusader  more  than  a  hymn.  In 
medieval  piety  the  image  of  the  historical  though  dying 
Jesus  was  thus  formed  side  by  side  with  that  of  the  sacra- 
mental eternal  Christ.  But  with  Bernard  the  historical 
was  secondary  to  the  mystical  and  experimental.     By  his 

»  W.  R.  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  p.  140,  also  Appendix  D.  p.  369 ; 
Harnack,  II.  D.  vi.  p.  0  ff. 


VII.]  RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    181 

treatment  of  the  fact  of  Christ  he  gave  to  the  romantic, 
erotic  side  of  mysticism  a  great  stimulus.  It  is  true  that 
he  always  speaks  of  the  Church  and  not  the  individual  as 
the  bride  of  Christ,  but  the  enforced  celibacy  of  monasticism 
soon  led  to  the  transference  to  the  individual  of  the  luscious 
language  of  the  Canticles.  Of  this  sensuous  presentation, 
so  akin  to  the  method  of  allegory,  the  beginnings  appear 
to  be  found  in  Origen's  commentary  on  the  Canticles. 
From  Origen  it  passed  to  the  Greek  fathers,  in  few  of  whom 
the  figure  does  not  occur.  Its  most  extreme  form  was  found 
in  the  tendency  current  in  the  thirteenth  century  to  give 
veneration  to  the  specific  limbs  of  the  Virgin — *  uterum 
quo  Christum  porta vit,  ubera  quibus  eum  lactavit,'  etc. 

We  see  the  same  mystical  principles  in  Bernard's  7)e 
Diligendo  Deo.  God  is  the  ground  and  cause  of  a  love  in 
which  there  are  four  stages.  The  first  stage  is  carnal  love, 
in  which  the  man  loves  himself.  The  second  is  a  love  of 
God  which  is  selfish,  inasmuch  as  it  is  due  to  suffering  and 
experience.  In  the  third  stage  he  loves  God  for  God's  own 
sake.  In  the  fourth  stage  the  spirit,  '  intoxicated  by  the 
Divine  love,  wholly  forgets  itself,  becoming  nothing  in  itself, 
and  becoming  one  spirit  with  Him.'  To  be  thus  affected 
is  to  be  '  deified,'  the  annihilation  of  self  "  in  the  immense 
sea  of  a  luminous  eternity."  Whether  this  fourth  stage  is 
possible  in  this  life  seems  to  Bernard  more  than  doubtful : 
'  Let  them  assert  it  who  have  experienced  it :  to  me,  I  con- 
fess, it  seems  impossible.' 


With  Abailard's  lifelong  conflicts  with  authority, 
whether  at  Paris  in  his  early  attacks  upon  the  crude 
Realism  of  his  master,  William  of  Champeaux,  or  at  Laon 
in  his  struggle  with  Anselm  of  Laon,  or  at  St.  Denys  in  his 
dispute  with  the  monks  over  "  Dionysius,"  or  in  the  more 
prolonged  duel  with  St.  Bernard,  we  are  not  here  concerned, 
save  to  point  out  that  they  were  the  outcome  of  his  system. 


182    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

For  the  real  cause  of  Abailard's  offending  was  his  constant 
appeal  from  authority  to  reason,  and  in  this  he  was  neces- 
sarily misjudged  by  an  age  which  cared  httle  for  reason 
and  everything  for  authority.  In  reality  Abailard  was 
no  heretic.  He  always  maintained  that  he  was  the  obedient 
son  of  the  Church.  In  the  verdict  of  Peter  the  Venerable, 
in  whose  monastery  at  Clugny  he  passed  away  (1142),  he 
was  '  ever  to  be  named  with  honour  as  the  servant  of  Christ, 
and  verily  Christ's  philosopher.'  In  his  last  letter  to  the 
famous  Heloise,  Abailard  had  pleaded  :  *  I  would  not  be 
an  Aristotle  if  this  should  keep  me  away  from  Christ,'  he 
owes  his  importance  to  his  demand  for  reverent  though 
thorough  inquiry  in  matters  of  religion.  Modem  Roman 
scholars  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  both  the  synods 
at  which  he  was  condemned,  Soissons  and  Sens,  were  con- 
spicuous for  zeal  rather  than  knowledge.  It  is  well  known 
also  that  the  work  of  his  disciple,  the  famous  Sentences  of 
Peter  Lombard,  is  largely  the  Sic  et  Non  of  Abailard  in  a 
more  reverent  form.  Yet  the  Sentences  became  the  accre- 
dited text-book  in  theology,  the  very  canon  of  orthodoxy  of 
the  later  Middle  Ages,  though  many  of  its  views  were  those 
for  which  Abailard  had  been  condemned.  But  we  need  not 
marvel  at  the  misfortunes  of  Abailard.  In  part  they  were  the 
results  of  an  ill-balanced  Judgment,  always  in  extremes  ;  in 
part  the  retribution  of  a  pride  intolerant  of  all  obscurant- 
ism ;  in  part  the  necessary  outcome  of  his  real  greatness. 

For  Abailard  was  so  great  intellectually,  so  completely  in 
advance  of  his  age,  both  in  the  extent  of  his  knowledge  and 
the  width  of  his  outlook,  that  his  positions  were  bound  to 
seem  heterodox  to  a  generation  that  leaned  wholly  on  the 
past.  Abailard,  in  fact,  belonged  to  the  future.  We 
salute  the  herald  of  the  Renaissance  "  in  his  joyful  recog- 
nition of  a  world  of  divine  teaching  of  old  outside  the 
borders  of  Judaism."  ^  The  very  spirit  of  Protestantism 
is  contained  in  his  declaration  that  the  *  doctors  of  the 
»  Poole,  Medieval  Thought ^  p.  175. 


VII.]  KENATSSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12to  CENTURIES    183 

Church  should  be  read  not  with  the  necessity  to  believe, 
but  with  liberty  to  judge.'  We  seem  transported  to  the 
twentieth  century  when  Abailard  claims  that  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture  may  err  or  the  text  be  faulty.  In 
the  preface  to  his  Sic  et  Non  he  lays  down  a  defence  of  all 
criticism  :  '  By  doubting  we  are  led  to  inquire,  by  inquiry 
we  perceive  the  truth.'  In  the  very  form  of  his  Sic  et  Non 
— a  collection  of  contradictory  opinions  from  the  fathers 
on  all  the  leading  disputes  of  theology — Abailard  shows 
his  belief  that  error  or  contradiction  may  be  but  stages  in 
the  discovery  of  truth.  Of  those  who  argue  that  we  must 
not  reason  on  matters  of  faith,  Abailard  asks  :  '  How,  then, 
is  the  faith  of  any  people,  however  false,  to  be  refuted, 
though  it  may  have  arrived  at  such  a  pitch  of  blindness 
as  to  confess  some  idol  to  be  the  creator  both  of  heaven 
and  earth  ?  As  according  to  your  own  admission  you 
cannot  reason  upon  matters  of  faith,  you  have  no  right  to 
attack  others  upon  a  matter  with  regard  to  which  you  argue 
that  you  ought  yourself  to  be  unassailed.'  The  dilemma 
of  unreasoning  pietism  has  never  been  better  expressed. 

Of  particular  doctrines  which  illustrate  Abailard' s  drift, 
we  select  the  following  as  of  especial  theological  interest. 
In  his  doctrine  of  inspiration  Abailard  is  very  bold.  This  he 
limits  down  to  matters  concerning  '  faith,  hope,  charity, 
and  the  sacraments.'  The  rest  is  largely  '  for  the  adorn- 
ment or  enlargement  of  the  Church.'  Even  *  prophets  and 
apostles  may  err,'  while  a  place  must  be  found  for  the 
revelation  given  to  the  heathen  philosophers,  especially 
Plato.  As  regards  the  humanity  of  Christ,  Abailard  is  in 
striking  contrast  to  his  age.  The  common  theory  of  the 
times  was  a  sort  of  transubstantiation  theory  of  Christ's 
person  ;  that  in  the  assumption  of  flesh  the  human  person 
though  not  the  nature  had  perished.  In  opposition  to 
this  Abailard  claimed  that  the  humanity  was  essentially 
real.  He  goes  so  far  even  as  to  urge  that  it  includes 
*  humanae  infirmitatis  veros  defectus.' 


184    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Abailard's  doctrine  of  sin  may  be  best  gathered  from 
his  work  Scito  te  ipsum.  Its  very  title  shows  the  emphasis 
he  places  on  self-knowledge  or  intention.  In  this  Abailard 
is  in  complete  opposition  to  the  formal  practice  of  his  age. 
Virtue,  he  maintains,  cannot  be  attained  except  by  con- 
flict. Ignorance  in  the  case  of  the  unenlightened  does  not 
constitute  sin,  and  the  Jews  who  ignorantly  crucified  Jesus 
must  be  judged  accordingly.  Original  sin  is  thus  the  penal 
consequence  of  sin  and  not  sin  itself.  '  It  is  inconceivable 
that  God  should  damn  a  man  for  the  sin  of  his  parents.' 
He  thus  emphasises  the  ethical  determination  of  the  divine 
action.  From  this  doctrine  of  sin  it  is  an  easy  transition 
to  Abailard's  moral  theory  of  the  Atonement,  the  creating 
within  us  by  His  passion  or  service  of  love  of  a  love  which 
itself  is  the  deliverance  from  sin.  He  rejects  totally  any 
theory  that  makes  the  Atonement  a  redemption  from  the 
right  of  the  devil,  but,  except  for  this  agreement,  he  may 
be  said  to  have  ignored  the  work  of  Anselm,  as  did  also  his 
disciple,  Peter  Lombard.  The  merit  of  Abailard's  theory 
is  that  he  emphasises  reconciliation  through  personal 
fellowship  with  Christ  ^ ;  its  defect  that  he  lays  so  little 
stress  upon  the  work  of  Christ  in  its  relation  to  guilt.  The 
emphasis  is  "  not  so  much  really  upon  the  love  of  God 
manifested  to  us,  as  upon  the  love  of  God,  generated 
within  us.  He  dwells  upon  the  Cross  very  finely,  as  an 
incentive  to  love ;  but  hardly  conceives  of  it  more  pro- 
foundly than  as  an  incentive.  He  has  lost  the  emphasis 
upon  the  thought  of  humanity  as  a  corporate  unity, 
summed  up  and  represented  in  Christ,  which  was  so  strong 
and  clear  in  the  earliest  Christian  theologians."  ^  We  owe 
also  to  Abailard  the  renewed  emphasis  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  of  Christ's  unceasing  intercession 
as  part  of  His  atoning  work. 

Abailard's  teaching  of  Logic  amounted  almost  to  a  re- 

»  Deutsch,  Ahdlard,  p.  382, 

•  Moberly,  Atonement  and  Peraorudity,  p.  381. 


VII.]  RENAISSANCE  OF  11th  AND  12th  CENTURIES    185 

volution.  Though  not  the  first  to  discern,  he  was  the  first 
to  popularise  a  theory  that  to-day  we  should  call  concep- 
tualism,  midway  between  the  extreme  nominalism  of  his 
former  master,  Roscelin,  and  the  crude  realism  of  William 
of  Champeaux,  whose  lectures  Abailard  had  also  attended. 
William  seems  to  have  asserted  the  full  immanence  of  the 
universal  idea  in  every  individual,  "  a  view  which  must 
necessarily  have  led  to  the  doctrine  of  the  one  latent  sub- 
stance, and  of  the  negating  of  all  that  is  individual  as  mere 
semblance  or  mere  contingency."  ^  Abailard  set  himself 
to  combat  the  logical  position  of  both  ;  by  conceding  to 
each  the  truth  of  their  affirmative  positions,  while  denying 
the  correctness  of  their  negations.  He  held  that  we  arrive 
at  the  general  from  the  particular  by  an  effort  of  thought. 
Thus  he  allowed  to  the  Nominalist  the  reality  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  to  the  Realist  the  reality  also  of  the  universals, 
in  so  far,  that  is,  as  they  were  the  necessary  creations  of  the 
intellect.  Abailard  thus  returned  to  the  position  of  Aris- 
totle, probably  without  any  direct  knowledge  of  Aristotle's 
arguments.  Hence  the  reputation  of  Abailard  in  dialectics 
when  Aristotle  became  dominant. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  theological  struggle  between 
St.  Bernard  and  Abailard.  The  differences  of  the  two 
men  were  fundamental,  of  the  kind  that  no  argument  or 
personal  intercourse  can  remove.  That  Bernard  was  a 
realist  goes  without  saying.  Realism  in  the  early  part  of 
the  twelfth  century  was  almost  identical  with  orthodoxy. 
But  this  was  not  the  chief  difference.  The  two  were  re- 
presentatives of  opposing  forces.  Abailard  summed  up  in 
himself  the  spirit  of  a  premature  revolt  against  imreasoning 
authority.  Bernard  was  the  embodiment  of  all  that  was 
best  in  the  old  faith  ;  a  reformer  in  morals  and  life,  a  rigid 
conservative  in  creed  and  ritual.  Abailard,  profoundly 
religious  in  his  way,  was  the  representative  of  a  creed  full 
of  dry  light  and  clear  of  cant,  but  which  had  shown,  both 

1  Harnack,  H.D.  vi.  p.  36  n. 


186   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

at  St.  Denys  and  St.  Gildas — two  monasteries  in  which 
he  had  passed  some  years  of  stormy  life — httle  power  in 
turning  men  from  their  sins  to  the  higher  vision.  With 
all  his  narrowness  of  intellectual  outlook  compared  with 
Abailard,  put  St.  Bernard  down  at  St.  Gildas,  and  that 
abode  of  loose  Hvers  who  flouted  Abailard  would  have  felt 
at  once  the  purifying  power  of  Bernard's  zeal.  Bernard's 
was  that  baptism  with  fire  which  not  only  cleanses  but 
warms  ;  but  of  this  the  cold,  intellectual  religion  of  Abailard 
knew  little  or  nothing.  To  Bernard  '  Faith  is  not  an 
opinion,  but  a  certitude.  "  The  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,"  says  the  Apostle,  not  the  phantasies  of  empty  con- 
jecture. You  hear ;  "  the  substance  " :  you  may  not  dispute 
on  the  faith  as  you  please;  you  may  not  wander  here 
and  there  through  the  wastes  of  opinion,  the  byways  of 
error.  By  the  name  "  substance  "  something  certain  and 
fixed  is  placed  before  you  ;  you  are  enclosed  within  boun- 
daries, you  are  restrained  within  unchanging  limits.* 
Abailard,  on  the  contrary,  proclaimed  that  reason  was  of 
God,  and  had,  as  philosophy  showed,  found  God.  He 
argued,  quoting  from  the  Wisdom  of  Sirach,  that  "  he  that 
is  hasty  to  trust  is  light-minded."  Conflict  between  the 
two  men  was  inevitable. 

The  circumstances  of  the  times  flung  Abailard  into 
controversy  with  Bernard.  Intellectually  the  only  foeman 
worthy  of  his  steel  would  have  been  Anselm  of  Canterbury. 
At  first  eight  there  seems  to  be  between  these  two  philo- 
sophers an  impassable  abyss,  unconsciously  summed  up 
by  Anselm  in  the  preface  to  his  Cur  Deus  Homo.  '  Some 
men  seek  for  reasons  because  they  do  not  believe  ;  we  seek 
for  them  because  we  do  believe.  This  is  my  beUef ,  that  if 
I  believe  not,  neither  shall  I  understand  *  {credo  ut  intdU- 
gam).  It  is  the  same  teaching  as  we  find  in  St.  Augustine 
and  in  all  mystics.  '  He  who  would  know,*  writes  the 
author  of  Theologia  Oermanica,  '  before  he  believeth  cometh 
never  to  true  knowledge.*    The  rule  of  Abailard    is  the 


VII.]  KENAISSANCE  OF  Uth  AND  12th  CENTURIES    187 

exact  opposite.  He  argues  that  men  believe  not  because 
of  authority  but  because  of  conviction.  Doubt  is  his 
starting-point,  reason  his  guide  to  certitude.  But  a 
deeper  study  reveals  that  the  conflict  between  the  two 
may  be  exaggerated.  Abailard  owns  that  the  highest 
truths  of  theology  stand  above  the  proof  of  our  under- 
standing ;  they  can  only  be  hinted  at  by  analogies.  But 
through  knowledge  faith  is  made  perfect.  Anselm  was  no 
less  anxious  to  satisfy  reason  than  Abailard,  only  he 
wanted  to  make  sure  of  its  limits  before  he  began.  Thus 
the  difference  between  the  two  great  thinkers  was  one 
rather  of  order  of  thought  than  real  divergence.  If  the 
chronological  order  be  regarded,  Anselm  is  right ;  if  the 
logical,  Abailard.  In  the  order  of  experience,  faith  precedes 
reason  ;  in  the  maturer  life,  reason  leads  up  to  faith. ^  It 
is  in  the  clear  perception  of  this  last  that  the  true  greatness 
of  Abailard  lies.  But,  as  Bacon,  he  had  to  leave  his  name 
and  memory  to  the  next  age,  that  age  which  he  had  done 
more  than  any  man  to  usher  in.  His  spirit  lived,  though 
unrecognised,  in  the  victories  and  movements  of  later 
thought.  In  more  ways  than  one  he  prepared  the  way  for 
the  conservative  constructions  of  the  great  Schoolmen. 
The  school  of  Paris  in  which  he  taught  developed  within 
a  generation  into  the  greatest  university  of  Europe  largely 
through  his  influence.  With  Abailard  also  closes  the  first 
period  of  Scholasticism.  The  thoughts  which  he  had 
worked  out  for  himself  the  next  age  assimilated  directly 
from  authority  ;  the  ideas  which  the  Church  had  con- 
demned were  henceforth  accepted.  For  in  1128  James  of 
Venice  translated  into  Latin  the  works  of  Aristotle  hitherto 
for  the  most  part  unknown.  Within  a  century  the  '  New 
Logic,'  as  it  was  called,  dominated  Europe.  In  the  place 
of  St.  Bernard  we  have  Aristotle  as  the  canonised  leader 
of  the  Church. 

1  Cf.  Fairbairn,  Ch/ristin  Modern  Theology,^.  120  flf.;  Deutsch,  AbOlard, 
p.  172. 


188    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    MEDIEVAL    MYSTICS 
Argument 

§  I.  The  importance  of  Mysticism — Analysis  of  its  charac- 
teristics— The  effect  of  Passivity — The  immortality 
of  Mystic  thoughts — The  dangers  of  Mysticism — 
Pantheism — Definition  of  Pantheism — Amalrich  of 
Bena— Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit        .        .    pp.   189-197 

§  II.  Eastern  Mysticism — Victorinus  Afer— St.  Augustine 
— Medieval  Mystics — Classification  of — The  Schol- 
astic Mystics pp.   197-200 

§  III.  Eckhart — His  importance— Analysis  of  his  Mysti- 
cism       pp.   200-206 

§  IV.  Tauler,  Ruysbroek,  and  Suso— The  Friends  of  God- 
Medieval  prophetesses — Boole  of  the  Nine  Rocks — 
Theologia  Oermanica — Thomas  k  Kempis — Mysti- 
cism and  the  Reformation     •        •        ,        •    PP*   205-211 


V1II.J  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  189 


As  the  importance  of  Mysticism  in  Christian  thought 
cannot  be  exaggerated,  it  were  well  to  understand  clearly 
to  what  that  importance  is  due.  In  his  remarkable 
examination  of  Mysticism  the  late  Professor  James  ^  tells 
us  that  there  are  two  necessary  marks  or  qualities  of  the 
mystical.  The  first  he  calls  Ineffability,  by  which  he 
means  "  that  no  adequate  report  thereof  can  be  given  in 
words."  He  goes  on  to  add  :  "It  follows  from  this  that 
its  quality  must  be  directly  experienced ;  it  cannot  be 
imparted  or  transferred  to  others.  No  one  can  make  clear 
to  another  who  has  never  had  a  certain  feeling  in  what  the 
quality  or  worth  of  it  consists."  The  second  quality  of 
Mysticism,  Professor  James  tells  us,  is  the  Noetic  quality  : 
"  Although  similar  to  states  of  feeling,  mystical  states  seem 
to  those  who  experience  them  to  be  also  states  of  know- 
ledge. They  are  states  of  insight  into  depths  of  truth 
implanted  by  the  discursive  intellect.  ...  As  a  rule  they 
carry  with  them  a  curious  sense  of  authority  for  after- time." 

Professor  James  adds  "  two  other  qualities,  less  strongly 
marked."  The  first  he  calls  Transiency,  the  second  Pas- 
sivity. "Transiency"  seems  to  us  to  be  rather  a  matter 
for  the  psychologist ;  it  is  the  mark  of  certain  psychic  or 
pathological  states  which  are  by  no  means  an  essential  of 
Mysticism.  But  of  the  truth  of  the  other  three  qualities  of 
Mysticism  indicated  in  this  analysis  by  Dr.  James  there 
can  be  little  doubt. 

To  these  qualities  Mysticism  owes  its  importance  in 
Christian  thought.     Take,  for  instance,  the  Noetic  quality. 

1  William  James,  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  lectures  16  and  1 J 


190   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Medieval  mysticism  arose  at  a  time  when  all  theological 
knowledge  was  being  reduced  by  logical  rules  to  various 

*  summas,^  when  Aristotle  was  becoming  the  dominant  factor 
in  the  thought  of  the  Church.  Mysticism  proclaims  that 
the  soul  has  faculties,  that  there  are  states  of  its  own  for 
the  discernment  of  spiritual  truth,  knowledge  none  the  less 
true  because  they  are  reached  by  direct  intuition,  and  escape 
clean  beyond  all  syllogism  or  systems.  The  more,  in  fact, 
that  theology  became  the  sport  of  the  schools,  the  greater 
the  need  that  there  should  be  voices,  if  only  in  the  wilder- 
ness, proclaiming  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  within. 

As  regards  Ineffability,  or  the  appeal  of  Mysticism  to  an 
experience  of  which  "  no  adequate  report  can  be  given  in 
words,"  we  note  in  Mysticism  the  revolt  of  the  spiritual 
against  a  religion  which  gave  little  place  to  experience  in 
comparison  with  formal  or  sacramental  religion.  In  the 
medieval  Church  the  individual,  qua  individual,  had  little 
or  no  place.  His  salvation  was  conditioned  from  first  to 
last  by  his  belonging  to  a  corporation,  in  whose  privileges 
and  functions  he  shared  ;  through  whose  sacraments  his 
life  was  nourished ;  by  whose  graduated  hierarchy,  though 
but  the  meanest  servant  of  the  Church,  he  was  linked  to 
the  supreme  Head  ;   whose  saints  shielded   him  by  their 

*  merits,'  or  helped  him  by  their  intercessions.  Through 
this  corporation  alone  was  he  brought  into  touch  with 
his  Saviour ;  outside  the  corporation  his  soul  was  lost. 
The  grandeur  of  this  idea  few  will  dispute  ;  its  extra- 
ordinary hold  for  centuries  upon  the  conscience  of  men 
testifies  to  its  appeal.  Its  dangers,  however,  in  the  sup- 
pression of  the  individual,  are  equally  clear.  Against  this 
danger  medieval  mysticism  raised  its  constant  protest. 
Mysticism  never  wearied  in  its  insistence  that  spiritual 
results  can  only  be  attained  by  inward,  spiritual  processes  : 

**  God  is  not  dumb,  that  He  should  speak  no  more. 
If  thou  hast  wanderings  in  the  wilderness, 
And  find'st  not  Sinai,  'tis  thy  soul  is  poor.'* 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  191 

But  such  experience  in  its  ultimate  analysis  is  always 
"  inefifable,"  and  this  in  several  ways.  It  is  ineffable  as 
contrasted  with  the  disputations  and  syllogisms  of  the 
schools.  The  mystic  maintains  that  such  knowledge  or 
experience  is  not  obtained  by  reason,  but  by  a  faculty  that 
works  in  a  sphere  above  reason.  As  such  it  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  ineffable.  As  Eckhart  puts  it :  '  All  the 
truth  which  any  master  ever  taught  with  his  own  reason 
and  understanding,  or  even  can  teach  to  the  last  day,  will 
not  in  the  least  explain  this  knowledge.'  In  the  words  of 
Tauler  :  '  The  dwelling  in  the  Inner  Kingdom  of  God  where 
pure  truth  and  the  sweetness  of  God  are  found  '  is  not  some- 
thing that  can  be  learned  from  '  the  masters  of  Paris.' 

*  What  it  is,  and  how  it  comes  to  pass,  is  easier  to  experience 
than  to  describe.  All  that  I  have  said  of  it  is  as  poor 
and  unlike  it  as  a  point  of  a  needle  is  to  the  heavens  above 
us.'  The  soul-stuff  that  rises  to  the  surface  of  conscious- 
ness only  when  the  depths  of  the  heart  are  stirred  is  nearly 
always  inarticulate.  Or,  to  change  the  metaphor,  the 
human  soul  is  like  some  great  iceberg ;  its  foundations  are 
submerged  in  hidden  depths. 

There  is  a  corollary  to  this  emphasis  of  experience,  the 
understanding  of  which  is  of  great  importance.  We  cannot 
do  better  than  expound  it  in  the  oft- quo  ted  words  of  the 
Neoplatonist  Plotinus  :  '  Even  as  the  eye  could  not  behold 
the  sun  unless  it  were  itself  sun-like,  so  neither  could 
the  soul  behold  God  if  it  were  not  God-like.'  For  the 
vision  of  God  there  must  be  likeness  to  God.  Hence  the 
emphasis  laid  by  the  mystics  on  the  '  Spark  '  or  '  Ground,' 
or  '  inward  man  '  or  '  eye  '  in  the  soul — the  names  vary, 
the  thought  is  one — that  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the 

*  Ground  '  in  God.  Whether  this  '  Spark  '  or  '  Ground  ' 
was  uncreated,  immanent,  and  basal,  or  a  remnant  of  the 
sinless  state  before  the  Fall — with  the  corollary  that  sal- 
vation consists  in  realising  our  true  nature — or  was  some- 
thing infused,  imparted,  or  added,  was  a  matter  over  which 


192    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

mystics  were  never  united.  Some,  with  the  Theologia 
Gernuinica,  declined  to  decide  at  all :  '  The  true  light  is  that 
eternal  light  which  is  God  ;  or  else  it  is  a  created  light,  but 
yet  Divine,  which  is  called  grace.'  If  this  '  ground '  was 
uncreated,  the  further  question  arises  of  its  relation  to  the 
Divine  Essence  or  Ground.  If  it  was  '  imparted,'  we  open 
the  door  to  the  doctrine,  upon  which  so  many  of  the  later 
mystics  loved  to  dwell,  of  '  the  birth  of  Christ '  within  the 
soul,  an  idea  materialised  by  certain  highly  wrought  nuns 
into  the  actual  travailing  in  birth  with  Christ. 

'  Passivity,'  the  belief  that  the  soul  simply  is  and  receives, 
is  no  accidental  note  of  medieval  mysticism.  To  say  that 
'  passivity  '  is,  strictly,  a  Neoplatonist  term  is  not  sufficient 
explanation  :  "  Passivity  goes  on  figuring  in  Christian 
Mystics  (in  spite  of  its  demonstrably  dangerous  suggestions 
and  frequently  scandalous  history),  because  the  Christian 
consciousness  requires  a  term  for  the  expression  of  one 
element  of  all  its  deepest  experiences,  that  character  of 
'  giveness '  and  of  grace  which  marks  all  such  states  in 
exact  proportion  to  their  depth."  ^  Moreover,  in  the 
Church  for  a  thousand  years  the  chief  note  of  the  '  re- 
ligious '  was  the  ascetic  or  monastic.  In  early  monasticism 
or  eremitism,  the  solitary  recluse  of  the  Nitria,  or  the  monk 
plunging  into  the  dense  forests  to  escape  his  fellows,  asceti- 
cism was  necessarily  *  passive.'  This  is  seen  most  clearly  in 
the  records  of  the  early  hermits,  especially  in  the  Historia 
Lauaiaca  of  Palladius.  But  as  monasticism  ceased  to  be 
the  refuge  of  the  individual  soul,  and  became  instead  an 
organised-community  life,  *  passive  '  asceticism  was  bound 
to  find  its  refuge  elsewhere.  This  is  found  in  mystic  '  con- 
templation,' the  note  of  which  was  the  same  passivity  as  is 
so  striking  a  feature  in  the  oldest  records  of  the  monastic 
life.  The  result  of  such  *  contemplation  '  was  the  '  dark- 
ness '  or  *  nothingness '  of  soul — the  human  correspondence 
to  the  '  quiet  Desert  of  the  Godhead,'  *  the  Divine  Darkness,' 

»  F.  Ton  HUgel,  The  Mystical  Element  of  Religion,  ii.  p.  182. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  193 

negative  definitions  common  to  mystics  of  all  ages  from 
Valentinus  and  Basilides  to  Eckhart.  In  some  of  the 
mystics  this  '  nothingness '  became  a  morbid  quietism 
which  mistook  for  spiritual  perfection  a  pathological  in- 
difference, where  all  consciousness  both  of  self  and  of  the 
world  is  reduced  to  zero,  after  the  manner  of  the  Eastern 
fakir.  The  root  of  such  quietism  is  the  false  conception, 
so  common  in  all  medieval  speculation,  that  God,  as  the 
transcendent,  Perfect  Being,  must  necessarily  be  without 
attributes.  As  the  author  of  the  Theologia  Germanica 
puts  it :  'To  God  as  Godhead  appertains  neither  will, 
nor  knowledge,  nor  manifestation,  nor  anything  that  we 
can  name,  or  say,  or  conceive.'  But  this  is  to  confuse  the 
Infinite  with  the  Indefinite,  or  rather  with  zero  raised  to 
the  infinite — if  we  may  adopt  a  mathematical  expression. 
The  historic  source  of  this  teaching  would  appear  to  be 
found  in  the  works  of  the  Neoplatonist  Proclus. 

To  the  above  characteristics  of  Mysticism  we  would  add 
another  of  great  importance  for  our  present  investigation. 
We  refer  to  what,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  we  must  call 
its  immortality.  "  To-day,"  says  Maeterlinck  finely,  "  you 
may  pass  through  the  infirmaries  of  the  human  soul,  where 
all  thoughts  come  day  by  day  to  die,  and  you  will  not  find 
there  a  single  mystic  thought."  ^  There  is  nothing  more 
remarkable  in  the  wide  range  of  the  visible  Church  than 
the  persistence  across  the  centuries  of  the  mystic  sense,  and 
of  the  spacious  joy  and  expansive  freedom  which  it  brings. 
Mysticism,  though  at  times  it  may  sleep,  is  never  dead.  A 
corollary  of  this  is  also  true.  There  is  in  Mysticism  a 
certain  timelessness,  which  is  the  despair  of  the  historian, 
especially  if  he  be  possessed  with  the  thought  of  progress. 
This  timelessness  manifests  itself  in  the  absence  of  local 
marks,  whether  national  or  ecclesiastical.  Mystics  of 
every  age  are  akin.  There  is  no  speech  or  language  where 
their  voice  is  not  heard.  When,  therefore,  Harnack  ^ 
1  Maeterlinck,  Huysbrocc,  p.  23.  2  B.D.  vi.  p.  101  n. 

N 


194    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

refuses  to  discuss  the  German  medieval  mystics  because 
he  would  "  like  to  avoid  even  seeming  to  countenance  the 
error  that  they  expressed  anything  one  cannot  read  in 
Origen,  Plotinus,  the  Areopagite,  Augustine,  Erigena, 
Bernard,  and  Thomas,"  he  points  in  a  perverse  sort  of  way 
to  a  great  truth.  The  mystics  are  in  reality  a  timeless 
brotherhood,  who  repeat  with  but  slight  variations  of  form 
or  language  certain  eternal  principles.  Nevertheless,  in 
the  very  repetition  there  is  progress. 

In  certain  of  its  aspects  it  was  inevitable  that  in  un- 
balanced minds  Mysticism  should  pass  into  unorthodoxy. 
One  of  the  dangers  of  Mysticism  is  Antinomianism.  This 
it  was  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  gave  Wesley  his  dislike, 
more  fancied,  however,  than  real,  to  all  forms  of  Mysticism.^ 
How  great  was  the  danger  in  the  Middle  Ages  we  see  in  the 
protests  of  the  mystic  John  of  Ruysbroek  against  those 
who  '  like  to  call  themselves  "  theopaths."  They  take 
every  impulse  to  be  divine,  and  repudiate  all  responsibility.' 
That  Mysticism  was  also  ofttimes  semi-Pelagian  in  char- 
acter was  the  outcome  of  certain  fundamental  positions. 
When  Juliana  of  Norwich  (fl.  1373)  says  that '  in  every  soul 
that  shall  be  saved  there  is  a  goodly  will  that  never  assented 
to  sin,  nor  ever  shall,'  she  but  puts  into  clear  English  the 
basis  of  the  condemnation  of  Eckhart  that  he  had  main- 
tained, that  there  is  in  the  soul  '  something  uncreated  ' 
of  a  divine,  and,  therefore,  of  an  untainted  character  : 

— the  spark 
He  gave  us  from  His  fire  of  fires,  and  bade 
Remember  whence  it  sprang,  nor  be  afraid 
While  that  bums  on,  though  all  the  rest  grow  dark. 

The  doctrine  of  the  *  uncreated  ground  '  was  fatal  to  the 
strict  Augustinian  conception  of  total  depravity.  But  not 
less  fatal  was  the  general  position  of  Mysticism,  that  God 
may  be  found,  not  by  deliverance  from  without,  but  by 

1  See  my  remarks  in  New  History  of  MethodUm,  i.  p.  58  ff. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  196 

sinking  into  the  depths  of  our  own  consciousness  :  '  If 
thou  desirest,'  says  Richard  of  St.  Victor,  '  to  search  out 
the  deep  things  of  God,  search  out  the  depths  of  thine 
own  spirit.'  On  its  philosophical  side  such  a  view  sprang 
from  the  conception  of  man  as  a  microcosm. 

Another  danger  of  Mysticism  was  pantheism.  The 
source  of  the  danger  was  twofold.  The  doctrine  of  the 
*  uncreated  ground  '  in  the  soul  could  easily  be  pushed  into 
the  heretical  conclusion  that  man  was  oixoova-tos  with  God, 
in  the  same  sense  as  Christ.  At  the  other  end  was  the 
danger  which  came  from  looking  upon  absorption  with  the 
Deity  as  the  aim  of  the  soul's  experiences.  But  pantheism 
is  a  loose  charge,  and,  on  that  account,  a  favourite  missile. 
Strictly  speaking,  pantheism  is  the  identification  of  every- 
thing with  God.  But  a  faith  which  looks  upon  everything 
as  equally  real,  good,  and  divine  is  incompatible  with  any 
belief  in  personality,  will,  purpose,  or  morality.  Now, 
however  much  the  Christian  mystics  might  play  with 
pantheistic  phrases,  there  are  few  of  them — certainly  not 
Eckhart — who  do  not  seek  to  conserve  personality.  For 
the  mystics  were  conscious  that  the  originality  of  Chris- 
tianity consists  in  its  revelation  through  the  person  of 
Christ  of  the  depth  and  inexhaustibleness  of  human  person- 
ality. Accordingly,  in  the  Christian  mystics,  dangerous 
as  their  language  with  reference  to  absorption  may  be 
at  times,  there  is  always  an  emphasis  of  purpose ;  in  the 
later  mystics,  for  instance,  much  is  made  of  the  will — and 
this  in  itself  is  fatal  to  pantheism. 

In  his  subtle  survey  of  Christian  Mysticism,  Professor 
Inge  has  pointed  out  certain  tendencies,  loosely  labelled 
pantheistic,  which  should  be  carefully  distinguished.  The 
first  he  calls  Acosmism,  the  denial  of  reality  to  the  visible 
world,  the  only  existence  being  the  '  intelligible  world  of 
ideas  '  in  the  mind  of  God.  Of  this  system  the  most 
thorough  modern  representative  is  Spinoza ;  of  the  older 
philosophers  we  may  take  the  Neoplatonists  or  Eckhart. 


196    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

A  second  belief  is  Panentheism,  the  belief  in  the  immanence 
of  a  God  who  is  also  transcendent.  "  In  its  true  form  it  is 
an  integral  part  of  Christian  philosophy,  and  indeed  of  all 
rational  theology.  But  in  proportion  as  the  indwelling  of 
God,  or  of  Christ,  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart  of  man, 
is  regarded  as  an  opus  operatum  or  as  a  complete  substi- 
tution of  the  Divine  for  the  human,  we  are  in  danger  of 
a  self-deception  •which  resembles  the  maddest  phase  of 
Pantheism."  ^  An  example  may  be  found  in  Catherine 
of  Genoa's  claim  :  *  I  find  no  more  me  ;  there  is  no  longer 
any  other  /  but  God.' 

Of  these  dangers  of  Mysticism  we  give  an  illustration. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  thirteenth  century  we  note 
the  rediscovery  of  John  Scotus  Erigena.  The  result  was 
seen  in  the  rise  at  Paris  of  a  school  of  mystics  who  ex- 
aggerated the  inward  experience  of  God^into  a  pantheistic 
independence  of  all  external  means  of  grace,  and  thus 
"  launched,  without  sufficient  store  of  charts  and  compasses, 
on  the  dangerous  sea  of  Spiritual  Freedom."  *  The  leader 
of  these,  Amalrich  or  Amaury  of  Bena,  taught  that  *  every 
one  ought  to  believe  as  an  article  of  faith  that  each  one  of 
us  is  a  member  of  Christ  * ;  words  of  innocent  evangelical 
ring,  which,  however,  were  used  by  Amalrich  in  the  sense 
that  anything  in  the  universe  in  the  last  analysis  is  God, 
and  that  the  purified  soul  becomes  God  Himself.  In  1205 
Amalrich's  doctrines  were  condemned;  but  the  seed  he 
had  sown  bore  fruit  in  the  formation  of  a  vigorous  society, 
whose  central  tenet  was  the  Antinomian  doctrine  that  one 
who  finds  himself  '  free  in  God '  is  thereby  raised  above 
rules  and  forms  and  rites,  which  are  merely  of  use  for  those 
on  a  lower  spiritual  level.  The  members  of  this  society 
(according  to  the  contemporary  account  of  Caesarius  of 
Heisterbach)  taught  '  that  there  is  neither  heaven  nor  hell, 
as  places,  but  he  who  knows  God  possesses  heaven,  and  he 
who  commits  mortal  sin  carries  hell  within  himself.'     They 

1  Inge,  op.  ciC.  p.  121.  *  R.  Jones,  Mystical  Religion,  p.  195. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  197 

claimed  (and  in  this  we  detect  the  influence  of  the  teaching 
of  Joachim  di  Fiori)  that  they  Hved  in  the  third  age.  The 
age  of  the  Father  had  been  succeeded  by  that  of  the  Son ; 
this  again  was  followed  by  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit, 
Who  had  become  incarnate  in  them,  and  Whose  direct  work 
brings  salvation  without  any  exterior  act,  whether  baptism 
or  eucharist.  The  society  was  broken  up,  and  its  more 
important  members  burnt  at  the  stake  ^t  Paris  in  1209  ; 
but  the  doctrines  took  refuge  among  the  Albigensians,  and 
were  only  extirpated  by  a  deluge  of  blood  and  the  counter- 
reaction  of  the  friars.  In  Rhineland  the  teaching  issued 
in  the  formation  of  a  widespread  Antinomian  sect  known 
as  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit.  In  Strassburg  in  1215  we 
read  of  the  burning  of  eighty  heretics,  whose  leader  Ortlieb 
had  taught  that  '  a  man  ought  to  give  up  all  externals  and 
follow  the  promptings  of  the  Spirit  within  himself,'  inas- 
much as  every  man  is  really  of  the  same  substance  as  God, 
and,  if  he  put  forth  the  will,  can  become  divine.  For  the 
man  in  such  a  state  sin  is  impossible,  for  all  that  he  does 
is  the  act  of  God. 


On  its  historical  or  genealogical  side  Mysticism  in  the 
Church  was  of  Eastern  or  Platonic  origin.  With  the 
mystical  elements  in  the  Early  Church,  especially  in  the 
Alexandrian  school,  we  have  already  dealt.  But  Eastern 
Mysticism,  in  which  the  stress  was  laid  upon  emanation, 
had  little  attraction  for  the  ruder  West.  Such  Eastern 
Mysticism  as  entered  into  Western  theology  came  in  chiefly 
under  false  pretences.  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  was  in 
but  not  of  the  Western  Church.  His  work,  while  widely 
reverenced,  was  really  alien  in  spirit  to  the  genius  of  Latin 
Christianity,  while  the  Mysticism  of  his  interpreter,  Erigena, 
had  been  without  abiding  influence  either  on  his  own  or 
later  generations.  Nevertheless,  if  only  because  of  the 
Platonic  Realism  underlying  Latin  theology  up  to  the  rise 


198   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

of  Scholasticism,  there  was  never  a  time  when  a  certain 
element  of  Mysticism  was  not  to  be  found  in  some  of 
its  writers,  apart  altogether  from  the  quotations  from 
Dionysius  with  which  all  medieval  commonplace  books 
were  filled.  Two  Latin  writers,  in  especial,  had  introduced 
Mysticism  into  theology  :  Victorinus,  the  first  Christian 
Neoplatonist  who  wrote  in  Latin,^  who  was  converted  to 
Christianity  in  his  old  age  (about  360)  ;  and  a  greater  than 
Victorinus,  though  he  owed  much  to  him — St.  Augustine. 
In  Victorinus,  who  had  received  as  a  tutor  the  rare  honour 
of  a  statue  in  the  Roman  Forum,  there  is  one  original 
conception  which  afterwards,  through  Augustine,  became 
common  in  the  Church.  In  his  treatment  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  he  speaks  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  bond 
{copula)  who  joins  in  perfect  love  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

The  mystical  elements  in  St.  Augustine  are  of  supreme 
importance.  It  is  true  that  Mysticism  only  touched  him 
on  one  side  of  his  nature  ;  it  formed  one  only  of  the  many 
contradictory  forces  the  synthesis  of  which  in  one  system 
gave  to  St.  Augustine  his  unique  position.  St.  Augustine's 
hold  upon  the  Western  world  was,  however,  too  profound 
for  such  Mysticism  as  he  had  incorporated  not  to  be  far- 
reaching.  But  perhaps  his  chief  influence  as  a  mystic  was 
that  in  the  doctrines  of  Austin  we  find  the  great  offset  to 
the  rationalism  into  which  the  predominant  Aristotelianism 
was  ever  tending  to  degenerate.  At  the  same  time,  in  his 
orthodoxy  we  find  the  preservative  against  mystic  pan- 
theism. 

The  mystic  elements  in  St.  Augustine  became  most  con- 
spicuous when  thrown  against  the  background  of  the  current 
Scholasticism.  When  Aristotle  conquered  the  schools, 
and  logic  became  supreme  in  theology.  Mysticism  was 
forced  to  become  articulate,  if  only  because  otherwise 
Mysticism  would  have  been  lost.    Such  attempts  at  sys- 

1  For  Victorious  and  his  importance,  see  Bishop  Qore  in  D.O.B.  iv.  s.v., 
or  Hamack,  H.D.  v.  p.  86  ff. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  199 

tematisation  were  twofold.  Some  of  the  writers,  anxious 
above  all  for  the  conservation  of  authority,  attempted  to 
combine  Scholasticism  and  Mysticism  ;  others,  on  the 
contrary,  were  indifferent  to,  and  independent  of,  the 
schools.  The  gulf  between  the  two  classes  is  not  slight, 
and  grew  with  the  increasing  formalism  of  the  schools. 
St.  Bernard,  who  lived  before  the  schoolman  had  become 
supreme,  is  naturally  less  sharply  marked  off  as  a  mystic 
than  Eckhart  or  Tauler  or  others,  who  were  driven  into 
independence  or  even  revolt.  In  the  first  class,  Mysticism, 
following  Augustine,  is  more  psychological :  the  emphasis 
of  self-knowledge  is  the  key  to  divine  knowledge.  Union 
with  God  is  achieved  through  the  faculties  of  the  soul.  In 
the  second  class  it  is  ontological :  the  capacity  for  union 
with  God  is  inherent  in  the  essence  of  the  soul.  In  the 
mystics  of  the  second  school  there  is  a  tendency  to  dis- 
parage reason  in  comparison  with  '  ecstasy.'  By  the 
writers  of  the  first  school  '  contemplation,'  '  intuition,'  or 
'  ecstasy  '  is  regarded  as  an  additional  faculty,  which 
supplements  but  not  invalidates  reason  ;  reason  deals  with 
the  natural,  '  contemplation  '  with  the  supernatural.  This 
distinction  was  soon  pushed  into  an  "  intractable  dualism,"^ 
and  has  led  to  the  identification,  in  the  modem  Roman 
Church,  of  Mysticism  with  "  the  science  which  treats  of 
supernatural  phenomena,"  including  witchcraft  and  the 
like.  On  the  other  hand,  the  alliance  of  Scholasticism  with 
Mysticism  issued  in  Gerson's  attempted  reduction  of 
Mysticism  to  an  exact  science,  in  which  all  mystical 
experiences  are  carefully  tabulated  and  classified.  In  such 
an  atmosphere  Mysticism  was  inevitably  asphyxiated. 
In  the  consequent  reaction,  orthodox  mysticism,  after 
Gerson,  took  refuge  in  devotion  without  troubling  itself 
much  about  its  logical  basis.  Mysticism  became  a  mode 
of  piety  and  life,  a  substitute  for  reasoning  rather  than  a 
form  of  the  schools. 

1  Inge,  op.  ciU  i.  p.  43. 


200    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Of  the  scholastic  mystics — leaving  out  Bernard,  who  was 
scarcely  a  schoolman — the  chief  were  Hugo  and  Richard  of 
St.  Victor,  Bonaventura,  Albert  the  Great,  and  Gerson.  Of 
these  Hugo  of  St.  Victor  (fH^l)  is  the  most  important, 
if  only  because  of  his  development  of  the  sharp  opposi- 
tion between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural.  In  the 
scholastic  mystics,  as  we  might  expect  from  the  influence 
of  Aristotle,  with  whom  God  is  the  transcendent  One 
beyond  the  All,  the  method  of  reaching  Him  is  either  the 
via  negativa,  the  rising  above  all  the  marks  which  give 
definition  and  reality  to  our  world  of  experience,  or  else 
it  is  a  supernatural  communication  from  the  transcendent 
which  we  gain  by  esctasy.  Of  this  '  negative  way,'  so 
beloved  by  medieval  orthodoxy,  the  language  is  always 
that  of  the  cloister.  Thus  in  the  De  adhaerendo  Deo  of 
Albert  the  Great  (1193-1280),  and  in  Bonaventura  (1221- 
1274),  all  the  emphasis  is  on  the  nakedness  and  passivity  of 
soul  which  is  necessary  if  we  would  enter  into  the  '  Divine 
Darkness.'  Only  by  the  '  darkness  of  the  mind,'  i.e.  a  mind 
in  which  '  the  doors  of  the  senses  are  kept  barred  and  bolted 
aganist  all  phantasms  and  images,'  '  as  if  the  soul  were 
already  separated  from  the  body,'  can  the  soul  arise  to 
the  vision  of  God  and  '  view  the  world  from  afar  o£F.'  In 
this  respect  the  language  of  these  orthodox  mystics  does 
not  differ  from  that  of  Tauler  or  Ruysbroek.  But  in 
Bonaventura  we  find  a  departure  from  the  Dionysian 
tradition  in  the  teaching  that  God  is  both  immanent  and 
transcendent. 

ni 

Of  the  mystics  in  whom  we  find  independence  of  the 
scholastic  tradition,  the  greatest  is  Meister  Heinrich 
Eckhart,  *  from  whom,'  as  one  of  his  pupils  proudly 
proclaims,  *  God  kept  nothing  hid.'  Eckhart  was  bom, 
probably,  at  Hockheim  in  Thuringia,  shortly  before  1260. 
In  his  fifteenth  year  he  entered  the  Dominican  convent  of 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  201 

Erfurt,  and  thence  passed  to  Cologne,  where  Albert  the 
Great's  teaching,  with  its  emphasis  on  scholastic  or  ortho- 
dox mysticism,  was  still  reverenced,  though  slowly  giving 
place  to  that  of  his  greater  pupil,  Thomas  Aquinas.  In 
addition  to  Albert  and  Aquinas,  and,  of  course,  Dionysius, 
Eckhart  seems  to  have  known  Erigena  and,  possibly, 
Averroes  also.  Eckhart's  election  as  prior  of  Erfurt  was 
followed  by  a  course  of  study  at  Paris  (about  1302),  which 
he  finally  left  in  1312  for  Strassburg,  at  that  time  the  fore- 
most religious  centre  in  Germany.  About  1320  he  returned 
to  Cologne,  where  he  preached,  with  astonishing  results. 
Mysticism  in  German  to  the  common  people,  and  in  Latin 
to  the  theologians.  For  some  time  he  seems  to  have  been 
sheltered  jfrom  attack  by  his  eminently  practical  and 
saintly  life.  In  the  year  before  he  died  (1327)  complaint 
of  heterodoxy  was  for  the  first  time  brought  against  him, 
the  chief  charge  being  that  he  had  maintained  '  that  there 
is  something  uncreated  in  the  soul.'  In  answer  to  his 
appeal  to  Rome,  Eckhart  was  condemned  two  years  after 
his  death  :  '  He  had  wished  to  know  more  than  he  should.' 
Seventeen  propositions  were  classed  as  '  heretical,'  and 
eleven  as  having  an  '  ill-sound,'  and  '  very  rash.'  While 
Rome  thus  condemned,  Henry  Suso  had  a  vision  of  the 
'  blessed  master,  in  exceeding  glory,  his  soul  quite  trans- 
formed and  deified  in  God.' 

In  comparing  the  Mysticism  of  Eckhart  with  that  of 
his  predecessors  from  Dionysius  downwards,  and  of  the 
scholastics  down  to  Gerson,  we  find  an  obvious  change 
in  the  disappearance  of  thQ  long  ladders  of  ascent,  the 
graduated  scales  of  virtues,  faculties,  and  states  of  mind, 
which  fill  so  large  a  place  in  those  systems.  These  lists 
are  the  natural  product  of  the  imagination  when  it  plays 
upon  the  theory  of  emanation.  But  with  Eckhart  the 
fundamental  truth  is  the  immanence  of  God  Himself,  not 
in  the  faculties,  but  in  the  ground  of  the  soul.^ 

1  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  p.  162. 


202    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

In  the  teaching  of  Eckhart  we  find  constant  insistence 
upon  '  the  Divine  Spirit '  within  the  soul  whereby  we  may 
rise  into  union  with  the  Godhead  in  an  *  Eternal  Now,' 
and  become  '  transformed  totally  into  God,  even  as  in  the 
sacrament  the  bread  is  converted  into  the  body  of  Christ.' 
It  is,  however,  of  importance  that  we  should  remember 
that  Eckhart  always  distinguishes  between  '  God  '  and  the 
*  Godhead.'  Behind  '  God,'  i.e.  '  natured  Nature,'  or  the 
Divine  revealed  in  Personal  Form,  there  is  the  Godhead  who 
is  the  Revealer  or  '  non-natured  Nature,'  i.e.  unoriginated 
Reality,  the  '  Ground  '  of  the  revelation,  just  as  behind  the 
me  and  its  conscious  processes  of  thought  there  is  a  deeper 
ego  which  is  ever  unknown,  but  none  the  less  real.  This 
Godhead  or  Ground  ever  transcends  knowledge,  and  there- 
fore is  a  *  nameless,'  '  naked  '  '  Nothing,'  for  nothing  can 
ever  be  predicated  of  '  the  impenetrable  Darkness  of  the 
eternal  Godhead.'  Such  Ground  is  an  '  Eternal  Now,'  the 
self-consciousness  of  which  is  the  differentiation  within 
Himself  of  subject  and  object,  i.e.  of  Father  and  Son. 
This  self -consciousness  is  not  temporal,  but  eternal ;  the 
Son,  therefore,  is  eternally  begotten.  '  God '  or  the  re- 
velation of  the  '  Godhead '  must  therefore  of  necessity  be 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  The  Trinity — for  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  regarded  as  the  personalisation  of  this  bond  of  love — is 
thus  the  eternal  process  of  the  Divine  Self-consciousness, 
and  no  mere  emanation  or  appearance  of  the  Absolute. 

"  The  reader  who  finds  himself  somewhat  dazed  in  this 
height  of  speculation  would  run  up  into  the  same  difficulty 
himself  if  he  should  undertake  strenuously  to  think  out 
what  is  involved  in  the  word  Infinite^  which  he,  without 
giving  it  much  thought,  applies  to  God.  Few  of  us,  like 
Eckhart,  have  either  the  desire  or  the  intellectual  power 
to  think  our  thoughts  through  to  the  bottom."  ^  We  may 
take,  as  an  instance  of  "  thinking  our  thoughts  through  to 
the  bottom,"  the  origin  of  our  belief  in  the  eternal  genera- 

1  R.  Jones,  Mystical  Religion,  p.  226. 


viTi.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  203 

tion  of  the  Son,  one  of  the  phrases  found  in  all  theological 
text-books.  In  its  ultimate  philosophic  analysis  this  is 
but  the  logical  consequence  of  saying  that  God  is  Love. 
But  love  must  have  some  object,  and  if  the  Love  is  eternal 
the  object  must  be  eternal.  Nor  can  that  object  be  outside 
the  '  Godhead,'  for,  as  Eckhart  would  have  phrased  it,  that 
would  involve  that  *  something  '  could  be  eternally  pre- 
dicated of  the  *  nameless  Nothing.'  The  '  other,'  whose 
existence  is  essential  if  the  Godhead  is  conscious  Love,  must 
therefore  be  within  the  Deity. 

Eckhart,  following  the  Neoplatonists,  regards  creation 
as  an  eternal  process  also,  the  self-consciousness  of  God 
beholding  within  Himself  the  Ideas  of  the  universe,  the 
projection  of  which  into  space  and  time  becomes  the  world 
of  creatures.  Creation  is  thus  the  eternal  thought  of 
'  God,'  i.e.  of  '  natured  Nature,'  just  as  the  Son  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  Eternal  Love  of  the  Godhead  or  '  unnatured 
Nature.'  Of  such  creation  the  only  reality  consists  in  the 
Divine  Ideas,  which  necessarily  exist  in  an  *  eternal  Now.' 

The  Neoplatonists  were  fond  of  making  a  distinction 
between  the  higher  and  lower  self,  of  which  the  former  was 
untainted  by  the  sins  of  the  latter.  In  Eckhart  the  dis- 
tinction is  drawn  with  great  sharpness.  Just  as  in  God 
there  is  a  Ground  or  Essence,  so  also  in  man  '  there  is  some- 
thing which  is  above  the  soul,  divine,  simple,  nameless 
rather  than  named.'  This  '  something  '  Eckhart  calls  '  the 
Spark,'  '  the  Ground  of  the  Soul,'  or  '  the  Soul's  Eye.'  The 
soul  deals  with  phenomena  in  time,  it  gives  us  the  em- 
pirical self — our  phraseology  is  modem,  but  would  seem 
to  express  Eckhart's  meaning.  The  ego  or  ground  is  the 
super- temporal  presupposition  of  experience,  and  can 
escape  beyond  the  particular  and  finite,  and  dwell  in 
*  the  ever-present  Now.'  ^    In  such  escape  lies  '  the  blessed- 

1  The  non-philosophic  reader  may  find  this  easier  to  understand  if  he 
compares  the  current  conception  of  Conscience  as  something  distinct  from, 
and  independent  of,  the  empirical  moral  contents  of  his  life. 


204    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

ness  of  the  poor  in  spirit,'  when  the  soul  has  withdrawn 
from  all  sense  experience,  and  '  wills  nothing,  knows 
nothing,  desires  nothing.'  Whether  this  Ground  or  Spark 
of  the  soul  is  in  God,  the  point  in  common  between  the  soul 
and  the  Divine  Ground,  or  whether  it  is,  as  Aquinas  had 
taught,  a  created  faculty,  supplementary  to  the  other 
faculties,  and  transcending  reason,  Eckhart  is  not  always 
decided.  In  his  earlier  days  he  taught  the  latter,  in  his 
later  the  former  doctrine.  A  similar  indecision  is  seen  in 
another  matter.  If  in  one  place  he  teaches  that  '  the  eye 
with  which  I  see  God  is  the  same  eye  with  which  He  sees 
me,'  elsewhere  he  maintains  the  separate  individuality  of 
the  human  and  Divine  Grounds.  The  soul  is  a  mirror 
which  when  placed  in  the  sunlight  sends  back  a  reflection  ; 
only  in  this  sense  are  '  sun  and  reflection  the  same  thing.' 
But  whatever  the  nature  of  the  '  Ground,'  it  is  by  rising 
into  this  '  Ground '  that  the  soul  becomes  one  with  the 
Godhead  in  an  Eternal  Now.  As  a  rule,  Eckhart's  lan- 
guage in  describing  this  union  becomes  little  less  than 
pantheistic.  '  Where  I  am,'  he  tells  us,  '  there  God  is  ; 
and  where  God  is,  there  am  I.'  Nevertheless,  it  may  be 
urged  that  he  just  saves  himself,  more  by  his  balanced 
Christian  instinct  than  by  his  logic.  He  insists  that  how- 
ever much  the  soul  '  may  sink  and  sink  in  the  eternity  of 
the  Divine  essence,'  yet  it  never  loses  its  identity.  Per- 
sonality, in  fact,  belongs  to  the  very  nature  of  the  soul ; 
for  Eckhart  it  is  the  eternal  ground-form  of  all  true  being. 
Eckhart  does  not  find  it  easy  to  fit  into  his  scheme 
the  historical  Atonement.  With  Eckhart,  as  with  most 
mystics,  the  Incarnation,  rather  than  the  Cross,  is  the  central 
fact  of  Christianity.  Christ  is  the  Ideal  Man,  in  whom  all 
men  have  their  unity  and  reality,  inasmuch  as  in  the 
*  Ground '  of  this  ideal  they  rise  to  their  own  '  Ground.' 
The  Incarnation,  or  self -revelation  of  God,  was  thus  a  real 
necessity,  and  would  have  been  even  if  Adam  had  never 
sinned.    This  view  of  the  Incarnation,  which  fits  in  so  well 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  a06 

with  the  modem  teleological  view  of  the  universe  and  the 
famihar  idea  of  the  ascent  of  man,  was  a  favourite  with 
medieval  writers  of  many  different  schools.  It  would 
appear  to  be  first  found  in  Rupert  of  Deutz  (fllSS).^ 

In  his  doctrine  of  sin  Eckhart  makes  everything  turn  on 
the  will.  In  this,  perhaps,  we  may  detect  the  influence  of 
Duns  Scotus,  whom  he  may  have  met  at  Cologne.  In  his 
view  sin  is  self-will.  Love  itself  '  resides  in  the  will ;  the 
more  will,  the  more  love.'  But  he  does  not  reconcile  his 
doctrine  with  his  belief  that  it  is  the  nature  of  all  phenomenal 
things  to  return  to  God,  from  whom  they  proceeded.  The 
effect  of  his  teaching  is  often  the  identification  of  perfection 
with  aTTct^eia,  and  this  in  spite  of  his  strong  insistence  upon 
the  value  of  the  life  of  service — '  better  to  feed  the  hungry 
than  to  see  the  visions  of  St.  Paul.'  But  such  insistence 
was  rather  due  to  his  heart  than  his  logic,  for,  since  the 
right  will  is  everything — '  if  your  will  is  right,  you  cannot 
go  wrong  ' — Eckhart,  in  opposition  to  all  medieval  thought, 
necessarily  attaches  no  value  to  good  works. 


IV 

The  influence  of  Eckhart  was  not  exhausted  with  his  life. 
A  succession  of  German  mystics  carried  on  his  teaching. 
If  on  the  speculative  side  they  added  nothing  of  value  to 
'  the  Master,'  the  spiritual  beauty  of  their  lives,  their  con- 
stant pursuit  '  of  the  eternal,  imcreated  truth,'  and  the 
intense  earnestness  with  which  they  emphasised  the  fact 
of  experience,  and  the  necessity  of  spiritual  communion 
with  God,  give  to  these  mystics  of  the  Rhine  an  important 
place  in  Christian  thought.  It  is  because  of  the  want  of  this 
personal  experience  that  in  a  well-known  incident  (1346), 
in  the  Book  of  the  Master,  the  '  Friend  of  God  from  the 
Oberland  '  is  reported  as  rebuking  '  a  great  doctor,  a  master 

1  On  this  doctrine  see  Westcott,  Gospel  of  Creation,  in  his  Ep.  John.    Cf. 
Ottley,  op.  cU.  ii.  p.  202  ff. 


206    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

of  the  Holy  Scripture,'  who,  on  somewhat  slender  his- 
torical grounds,  has  been  identified  with  Tauler.  The 
primary  teaching  of  all  those  writers  may  be  expressed 
in  the  words  of  John  Ruysbroek  (1293-1381) :  '  The  soul 
finds  God  in  its  own  depths.'  In  the  history  of  their  inner 
lives  we  mark  the  revolt  of  the  individual,  especially  of  the 
layman — this  point  is  of  great  importance — against  a 
Church  life  which  tended  to  his  suppression.  Their  Mys- 
ticism has  for  the  reader  much  the  same  interest  as  St. 
Augustine's  Confessions.  He  finds  himself  transplanted, 
especially  in  the  Theologia  Germanica  and  in  the  Imitatio 
Christi,  into  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  soul.  A  study  of 
their  writings  belongs  rather  to  the  history  of  Christian 
piety  than  to  that  of  Christian  thought.  Their  story  is 
conditioned  so  much  by  struggle  and  suffering  as  to  belong 
more  to  the  psychology  than  the  philosophy  of  Mysticism. 
There  are,  however,  a  few  matters  in  connection  with  these 
mystics  that  demand  attention. 

In  the  first  place,  these  mystics,  whether  under  the  name 
of  Friends  of  God,  Beghards,  Beguins,  or  Brethren  of  the 
Common  Life,  were  all  part  of  the  same  general  revolt 
against  a  materialised  church  as  produced  Wyclif  and  Hus. 
But  where  Wyclif  was  active,  they  were  passive.  With 
political  and  ecclesiastical  movements  they  had  no  concern. 
Nor  were  they  anxious  to  reconstruct  either  the  Church 
or  its  theology.  But  on  the  side  of  spiritual  life  and  ex- 
perience theirs  was  a  silent,  unorganised  protest  against 
an  age  of  which  the  chief  event  for  the  Church  was  the  dis- 
graceful "  Babylonish  captivity  "  of  the  papacy  at  Avignon 
(1309-1377).  The  student,  anxious  to  understand  the  con- 
trast, cannot  do  better  than  take  up  any  treatise  of  Wyclif, 
whether  in  English  or  Latin,  and  compare  it  with  Rulman 
Merswin's  remarkable  literary  creation  of  '  the  Friend  of 
God  from  the  Oberland,'  that  strange  being  whose  mythical 
existence  has  misled  centuries,  but  who  was  really  "  the 
*  Christian '  of    a  fourteenth-century  Pilgrim's  Progress, 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  207 

illustrating  how  God  does  His  work  for  the  world  and  for 
the  Church  through  a  divinely  trained  and  spiritually 
illuminated  layman."  ^ 

We  have  referred  to  the  psychological  or  psychic  rather 
than  the  philosophical  character  of  their  Mysticism.  We 
see  this,  in  one  direction,  in  their  excessive  expectation  of 
ecstasy  or  supernatural  incorporation,  and  their  extreme 
asceticism — Suso  gives  us  a  dreadful  picture  of  his  self- 
scourgings — in  all  ages  the  fruitful  cause  of  such  halluci- 
nations. We  see  it  also  in  the  apocalyptic  strain  of  their 
utterances,  though  in  this  they  were  at  one  with  the  con- 
temporary canonised  prophetesses,  St.  Bridget,  St.  Hilde- 
gard,  and  St.  Elizabeth  of  Schoenau.  It  is  also  apparent 
in  their  writings.  The  Book  of  the  Nine  Rocks  (1351),  the 
chief  work  of  the  Friends  of  God,  is  in  reality  a  series  of 
visions.  Apart  from  ecstasy,  personal  life  is  made  the 
constant  subject  of  observation  and  delineation.  Merswin 
(tl382)  and  his  friend  Nicholas  von  Lowen  have  left  us 
some  twenty  treatises,  the  historical  elements  in  which,  if 
real  at  all,  are  altogether  secondary  to  their  value  as 
'  tendency-literature,'  or  the  analysis  of  the  ideals  and 
inspirations  of  the  Friends  of  God.  Henry  Suso  (b.  1285) 
of  Swabia,  with  extraordinary  minuteness  and  much  liter- 
ary skill,  in  a  remarkable  autobiography  exposes  to  us  his 
inmost  soul,  as  he  unfolds  his  struggles  '  to  divest  him- 
self of  himself,  pass  into  God,  and  become  wholly  one  with 
Him,  as  a  drop  of  water  mingled  with  a  cask  of  wine.' 
The  psychological  character  of  this  human  document  is 
heightened  by  being  written  throughout  in  the  third  person, 
as  if  Suso  had  attained  his  heart's  desire  and  stood  apart 
from  himself. 

As  with  mystics  of  all  ages,  so  with  these  medieval 
Germans ;  they  especially  served  the  Church  by  the  em- 
phasis they  laid  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  His  work  and  place  were  almost  totally 

1  R.  Jones,  op.  cit.  p.  251. 


208    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

ignored.  In  their  insistence  upon  the  reahty  of  present 
inspiration  for  all  who  receive  '  the  luminous  grace  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,'  and  have  entered  into  His  '  upper  school,' 
they  remind  us  of  George  Fox  and  the  later  Friends.  '  The 
Holy  Spirit,'  says  '  the  Friend  of  God  from  the  Oberland  ' 
in  the  Book  of  the  Master,  '  has  the  same  power  to-day  as 
ever.'  In  the  Book  of  the  Nine  Rocks  this  becomes  the 
claim  that  '  God  can  still  write  a  book '  ;  the  Bible  is  not 
the  exhaustion  of  His  thoughts.  In  publishing  his  wonder- 
ful autobiography,  Suso  believed  that  the  Divine  Wisdom 
was  making  use  of  his  pen.  Says  Thomas  a  Kempis  : 
'  Some  place  their  religion  in  books,  some  in  images,  some 
in  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  external  worship.  But  some, 
with  illuminated  understandings,  hear  what  the  Holy 
Spirit  speaketh  in  their  hearts.'  The  practical  bearing 
of  the  doctrine  is  best  seen  in  the  oft- quoted  passage  in 
which  Tauler  claims  this  gift  as  the  basis  of  a  consecrated 
life  :  '  One  man  can  spin,  another  can  make  shoes,  and  all 
these  are  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  tell  you  if  I  were  not 
a  priest  I  should  esteem  it  a  great  gift  that  I  was  able  to 
make  shoes,  and  I  would  try  to  make  them  so  well  as  to  be 
a  pattern  to  all.' 

Of  the  Friends  of  God  the  best  known  is  John  Tauler  of 
Strassburg  (1300-1361).  He  was  the  preacher  of  the  move- 
ment, and  the  great  theme  of  his  sermons  is  the  need  of  the 
inner  light  and  of  the  indwelling  of  God  in  the  soul.  In 
most  points  his  doctrine  is  the  same  as  Eckhart's,  but  "  his 
sense  of  sin  is  too  deep  for  him  to  be  satisfied  with  the  Neo- 
platonic  doctrine  of  its  negativity  "  ;  ^  nor  does  he  look 
upon  creation  as  necessary  to  the  nature  of  God,  though  he 
owns  that  the  '  ideas  '  of  the  world  exist  in  the  Son  '  from 
all  eternity.'  In  the  Theologia  Germanica  "  a  golden  little 
treatise,"  the  influence  of  which  upon  Luther  was  so  pro- 
found, we  find  a  constant  cry  against  self-will  :  *  Put  off 
thy  own  will  and  there  will  be  no  hell.  If  there  were  any 
1  Inge,  ChrUtian  Mysticism,  p.  181. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  209 

person  in  hell  who  should  get  quit  of  his  self-will  and  call 
nothing  his  own,  he  would  come  out  of  hell  into  heaven.' 
The  result  of  such  loss  of  self-will  will  be  the  fulfilment 
of  the  author's  great  prayer  :  '  I  would  fain  be  to  the 
Eternal  Goodness  what  His  own  hand  is  to  a  man.'  In  one 
matter  the  Theologia  Germanica  breaks  away  from  the 
traditional  standpoint,  especially  from  the  hard  legalism  of 
Anselm.  In  his  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  he  dwells  upon 
the  anguish  of  God  because  of  sin,  in  a  manner  that  reminds 
us  of  much  modern  thought.  Sin  is  so  hateful  to  God 
that  He  would  willingly  suffer  agony  and  death  to  purge 
away  one  man's  sin.  Wherever  there  is  grief  for  sin  there 
we  find  the  presence  of  God.  For  the  accusation  sometimes 
brought  against  the  Theologia  Germanica  of  pantheism 
there  seems  little  jusftification.^  The  '  dreaming  oneself 
into  God  '  is  one  of  the  extravagances  of  the  '  false  light ' 
against  which  he  warns  his  readers. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  Mysticism  passed  into  common 
life.  But  it  was  no  longer  the  Mysticism  of  Dionysius  and 
Erigena,  or  of  the  Schoolmen,  or  even  of  Eckhart  and 
Tauler.  It  was  a  mysticism  which  abandoned  speculation 
for  practice.  Its  keynote  was  the  positive  '  imitation ' 
of  Christ,  and  the  reality  of  inward  religion.  In  Catherine 
of  Siena,  Walter  Hilton,  and  the  nun  Juliana  of  Norwich  ; 
in  the  great  mystical  brotherhood  of  Holland,  the  Brethren 
of  the  Common  Life,  with  Gerard  Groote  (b.  1340),  the 
Wesley  of  the  fourteenth  century,  at  their  head,  we  mark 
the  rise  of  this  new  Mysticism  in  every  country  in  Europe. 
The  outcome  of  the  whole  movement  on  its  intellectual  side 
is  seen  in  the  most  influential  mystic  writing  the  world  has 
ever  known,  the  Imitation  of  Christ. 

The  life  of  Thomas  Haemerlein  of  Kempen  covers  nearly 

a  century,  but  it  is  characteristic  that  his  work  belongs  to 

no  age,  and  scarcely  reflects  at  all  the  long  days  through 

which   he   lived.     After   resuming   his   education   at   the 

1  See  Inge,  op.  cit.  p.  184,  also  p.  365. 

O 


210    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

schools  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  at  Deventer, 
Thomas  entered  in  1400  the  community  at  Mount  St.  Agnes, 
and  there  in  1471  he  died.  But  in  this  "  silent,  motionless 
centre  of  a  whirling  and  incomprehensible  world,"  ^  neither 
sound  of  trumpet  nor  voice  of  words  disturbed  those  whose 
only  thought  was  of  Christ  and  of  His  imitation.  There, 
somewhere  between  1400  and  1425,  Thomas  wrote  his  book. 
"  It  was  written  down  by  a  hand  that  waited  for  the  heart's 
prompting  ;  it  is  the  chronicle  of  a  solitary,  hidden  anguish, 
struggle,  trust,  and  triumph — not  written  on  velvet  cushions 
to  teach  endurance  to  those  who  are  treading  with  bleeding 
feet  on  the  stones.  And  so  it  remains  to  all  time  a  lasting 
record  of  human  needs  and  human  consolations,  the  voice  of 
a  brother :  who,  ages  ago,  felt  and  suffered  and  renounced."  ^ 
From  the  standpoint  of  Christian  thought  the  value  or 
Thomas's  work  is  twofold.  Historically  it  is  the  last, 
as  it  is  the  best,  expression  and  defence  of  the  ideals 
of  a  monastic  world ;  it  is  the  swan-like  song  of  a 
system  whose  effective  work  in  the  world  was  in  reality 
finished,  and  whose  days,  therefore,  were  numbered.  Of 
more  importance  is  it  to  note  its  abandonment  of  the 
mere  negative  side  of  self-renunciation.  The  negative 
side,  it  is  true,  is  there ;  for  that  matter,  there  can  be 
no  spiritual  life  where  it  is  not  found.  At  times  also 
this  negative  side  appears  in  a  mischievous  form, 
illustrations  of  which  will  readily  occur  to  every  reader  of 
the  Imitation,  But  in  the  very  title  of  the  work  we  find 
a  protest  against  negation.  The  insistence  on  the  negative 
road  had  so  often  ended  with  medieval  mystics  in  the  futile 
quest  of  the  Absolute,  '  the  Divine  Darkness,'  and  the  like. 
For  this  dangerous  tendency  Thomas  substitutes  the 
imitation  of  Christ ;  in  place  of  the  *  immeasurable '  he 
holds  before  us,  imperfectly  perhaps,  but  with  marvellous 
power,  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  Christ.     Hence  the 

1  de  Montmorency,  Thomas  a  Kempia  p.  89. 

>  Qeorge  Eliot,  Mill  on  the  Floss,  book  it.  chap.  iii. 


VIII.]  THE  MEDIEVAL  MYSTICS  211 

core  of  the  message  of  Thomas  is  that  no  mere  abandon- 
ment, self-mortification,  self-crucifixion,  without  a  holy 
passion  of  love  can  bring  us  to  our  goal.  '  Without  con- 
tending,' he  tells  us,  '  there  can  be  no  conquest.'  Such  a 
belief  is  fatal  to  all  quietism,  its  logical  issue  is  the  advice 
of  Thomas  :  '  Never  be  idle  or  vacant.  Be  always  reading 
or  writing  or  praying  or  meditating  or  employed  in  some 
useful  labour  for  the  common  good.' 

The  effect  of  this  positive  side  of  Thomas  is  seen  in  his 
disciple,  John  Wesel  Gansfoort  (1419-1481),  who  worked 
unceasingly  for  the  spiritual  reformation  of  the  Church. 
But  with  John  Wesel  we  begin  the  Reformation.  '  If  I 
had  read  Wesel  sooner,'  said  Luther,  '  my  adversaries 
would  have  said  that  I  had  borrowed  my  whole  doctrine 
from  him.  Our  minds  are  so  consonant.'  Unfortunately 
Luther,  in  spite  of  the  mysticism  that  underlies  his  cardinal 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  never  really  understood 
the  mystics.  Owing  to  this  and  other  causes,  the  work 
which  the  speculative  mystics  performed  for  medieval 
thought  has  since  the  Reformation  been  taken  over  by 
philosophy,  though,  alas  !  without  the  association  with 
religion  invariable  in  the  Middle  Ages. 


212    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  SCHOOLMEN 
Argument 

§  I.  The  new  forces — The  Friars — Their  place  in  science 
and  theology — The  Spiritual  Franciscans  and  the 
revival  of  '  prophecy ' — William  of  Ockham  and 
Marsiglio — The  Defensor  Pads — Importance  of  the 
work — Roger  Bacon pp.   213-221 

§  II.  Aristotle — His  rapid  conquest  of  the  Schools — The 
new  translations — An  outburst  of  Scepticism — 
Averroes  and  Avicenna — Danger  of  their  philos- 
ophy—Monopsychism   pp.   221-227 

§  III.  Plato  and  Aristotle — Early  predominance  of  Plato — 
Causes  of  the  later  influence  of  Aristotle — The 
dialectics  of  the  natural  man — Importance  of 
Thomas  Aquinas — His  new  synthesis — The  future 
of  Thomism— Duns  Scotus — His  unfortunate  fate 
—The  effect  of  his  scepticism        .        .        •    PP-   227-234 

§  IV.  Realism  and  Nominalism — Roscelin — Ockham— The 
triumph  of  Nominalism — Realism,  Nominalism, 
and  Transubstantiation — Lanfranc  and  Berengar 
— The  'quantity'  of  Aquinas — Duns  Scotus  and 
substance — Nominalism  and  the  new  dogma — The 
consequences  for  Wyclif  and  Hus — Duns  and  the 
will pp.    234-240 

§  V.  The  return  to  Augustine— Wyclif— The  failure  of 
Scholasticiam  —  ^ts  later  unreality  —  The  New 
Learning      . pp.   240-243 


Lt]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  213 


The  student  would  do  well  to  understand  the  new  forces 
in  life  and  thought  which  differentiate  the  early  from  the 
later  Schoolmen.  In  the  main  they  were  three  in  number  : 
the  rise  of  the  secular  universities  as  the  centres  of  learning 
and  thought,  in  place  of  the  monasteries  or  cathedral 
schools  ;  the  coming  of  the  friars  ;  and  the  adoption  by 
the  Church  of  Aristotle  as  her  pilot  in  the  search  for  truth. 
Judged  by  permanent  effect,  the  greatest  of  these  three 
was  the  growth  of  the  new  universities.  But  for  our 
present  purpose  this  was  secondary  in  importance  to  the 
influence  of  the  '  new  logic'  For  the  new  universities, 
though  destined  to  become  the  homes  of  culture  and  science, 
were  at  first  completely  dominated  by  the  prevailing  passion 
for  dialectics.  The  few  who,  like  Roger  Bacon,  pleaded  for 
a  larger  outlook  were  '  unheard,  forgotten,  buried  ' — to 
quote  Bacon's  own  sad  verdict  on  his  life. 

The  later  Scholasticism  was  powerfully  assisted  by  the 
revival  of  religion  in  the  thirteenth  century,  under  the 
lead  of  Francis  of  Assisi  (tl226)  and  Dominic  (tl221).  On 
the  side  of  practical  piety  the  coming  of  the  friars  was, 
perhaps,  the  greatest  popular  movement  recorded  in  history. 
But  the  influence  of  the  revival  upon  religious  thought 
should  not  be  overlooked.  Francis  himself  had  dreaded 
the  effects  of  learning.  He  was  not  willing  even  that  the 
friars  should  become  men  of  one  book ;  his  ideal  rather 
was  men  of  one  life.  'When  you  have  a  psalter,'  he 
said  to  one  of  the  novices,  '  you  will  want  a  breviary, 
and  when  you  have  a  breviary  you  will  seat  yourself  in  a 
pulpit  like  a  great  prelate.'     Then  taking  up  some  ashes, 


214    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Francis  scattered  them  over  the  head  of  the  novice,  saying  : 
'  There  is  your  breviary,  there  is  your  breviary/  Francis 
was  right  in  so  far  as  he  saw  that  logic  and  canon  law 
monopolised  the  thought  of  the  secular  clergy.  But  Francis 
failed  to  see  that,  by  laying  the  foundations  of  life  in 
love,  knowledge  would  become  a  true  handmaid  to  work. 
Nevertheless,  to  Francis  Europe  owes,  indirectly,  the  rise 
of  science.  He  taught  men,  though  he  knew  it  not,  to 
turn  from  verbal  quibblings  to  the  study  of  nature  ;  for 
instance,  the  care  of  the  friars  for  men's  bodies  soon  de- 
veloped the  physical  studies  for  which  the  Order  became 
celebrated.  But,  owing  to  the  dominance  of  dialectics, 
the  return  to  nature  found  its  chief  field  in  the  rise  of  a 
new  art,  under  the  lead  of  Giotto,  Fra  Angelico,  and  other 
Italians.  From  art  the  transition  was  easily  made  in 
Italy  to  the  rediscovery  of  the  humanities  and  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Renaissance.  Once  more  Hellas  claimed 
her  own. 

Within  a  few  years  of  the  death  of  St.  Francis  the  friars 
became  the  intellectual  leaders  of  Europe.  Tliey  learned 
the  great  truth  repeated  in  every  revival,  that  no  Church 
can  be  built  upon  mere  experience,  or  by  descending  to 
the  social  condition  of  the  outcast.  They  set  out  to  win 
the  towns  for  Christ ;  they  found  the  towns  in  a  ferment 
of  unbelief.  To  maintain  a  hold  they  must  enter  into  the 
intellectual  as  well  as  the  moral  difficulties  of  their  flocks. 
The  Dominicans  perceived  this  from  the  first,  and  eagerly 
sought  out  the  centres  of  learning.  Their  headquarters 
were  at  Paris  and  Bologna  ;  in  England  their  first  convent 
was  at  Oxford.  The  Franciscans  were  not  slow  to  follow. 
Their  first  English  provincial  '  built  a  school  in  the  fratry 
of  Oxford  and  persuaded  Master  Robert  Grosseteste,  of  holy 
memory,  to  read  lectures  there  to  the  brethren.'  The  six 
great  doctors  of  later  Scholasticism  all  belonged  to  the 
Mendicants.  Alexander  of  Hales,  Albert  the  Great,  and 
Thomas  Aquinas  were  followers  of  Dominic  ;  Bonaventura, 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  215 

Duns  Scotus,  and  William  of  Ockham,  of  Francis.  To 
these  we  must  add  Adam  Marsh,  Raymond  Lull,  Roger 
Bacon,  and  a  long  list  of  distinguished  names. 

The  effect  upon  thought  of  the  great  revival  was  many- 
sided.  It  infused  new  energy  into  every  form  of  life, 
religious,  ecclesiastical,  political,  and  heretical.  In  the 
schools  the  movement  happened  to  coincide  with  the  dis- 
covery of  Aristotle.  From  the  first  the  friars,  especially 
the  Dominicans,  flung  themselves  into  the  adaptation  of 
the  Greek  philosopher  to  the  needs  of  orthodoxy.  Not 
less  important  was  the  part  that  two  Dominicans,  Eckhart 
and  Tauler,  played  in  the  setting  forth  of  the  philosophic 
grounds  of  Mysticism.  On  the  ecclesiastical-political  side 
we  have  in  William  of  Ockham  and  Michael  of  Cesena  two 
of  the  leaders  of  revolt.  They  were  Franciscans,  for  it 
was  ever  among  the  Brothers  Minor  that  we  find  an  in- 
tellectual and  moral  ferment  that  drove  them  either  into 
new  dogmas  of  orthodoxy,  or  into  the  most  daring  heresies 
of  i-eligion  and  philosophy. 

In  the  Eastern  Church  the  great  struggle  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  ^had  raged  over  the  definitions  of  the 
nature  of  Christ.  It  is  equally  characteristic  of  the  Western 
world  that  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  there 
should  be  passionate  controversy  concerning  the  meaning 
and  obligations  of  '  poverty,'  the  extent  to  which  the 
'  poverty '  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles  was  absolute,  and 
so  forth.  The  controversy,  though  in  its  developments 
associated  with  the  Franciscans,  by  no  means  began  with 
them.  The  dispute  was  "  in  the  air  "  ;  it  formed  the 
motive  of  the  movements  before  St.  Francis  associated 
with  Waldo,  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  and  the  Catholic  Poor 
of  Durand  of  Huesca  ;  it  was  part  of  the  general  revolt 
against  a  Church  which  had  forgotten  the  precepts  of  its 
Founder.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  enter  into  the  dreary  con- 
flicts of  the  Sj)iritual  Franciscans.  The  quarrels  between 
the  '  Zealots  '  and  '  Moderates  '  have  long  since  burnt  them- 


216    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

selves  out  into  ashes  which  we  would  not  Ughtly  disturb. 
Suffice  that  we  note  the  part  played  by  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans  in  the  revival  of  apocaljrptic  prophecy.  For 
in  their  indignation  against  the  attempts  of  Rome  to  whittle 
away  the  obligation  of  absolute  poverty,  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans  began  to  circulate  writings  ascribed  to  Joachim 
di  Fiori  (1145-1202).  In  these  Rome  was  described  as  the 
great  whore  and  the  barren  fig-tree  ;  the  Elmore  as  the  in- 
strument of  God  which  should  overthrow  a  corrupt  Church. 
Joachim  had  prophesied  that  in  1260  the  dominion  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  third  age  of  the  Church,  would  suc- 
ceed the  exhausted  dispensations  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  A  terrible  persecution  would  separate  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff,  and  the  elect  would  enter  into  peace,  with 
the  incoming  of  the  reign  of  love  or  '  age  of  lilies.' 

For  sixty  years  these  speculations  of  Joaqliiin  had  been 
prized  by  the  Church.  Popes  and  theologians  had  failed 
to  discern  their  dangerous  ^tendencjes.  But  in  1254  the 
'  Spirituals ' — who  had,  in  fact,  appropriated  this  name 
to  themselves  from  Joachim's  prophecy — forced  them 
into  fatal  prominence  by  their  publication  at  Paris  of  the 
famous  treatise.  The  Introduction  to  the  E^rnal  Gospel,  the 
work  of  the  learned  enthusiast  Gherardo  da  Borgo  San 
Donnino.  This  book,  now  lost,  met  among  all  classes  with 
unbounded  success  ;  yet  nothing  more  revolutionary  of 
the  whole  order  of  the  Church  had  ever  been  penned. 
Gherardo  sweeps  away  the  whole  sacerdotal  system  ;  love 
would  replace  all  the  sacraments  of  the  Church ;  con- 
templation take  the  place  of  active  life. 

The  great  part  played  by  these  apocalyptic  visions  and 
ideals  in  the  thought  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies has  hardly  been  sufficiently  appreciated  as  yet  by 
scholars,  possibly  because  they  have  kept  too  much  to  the 
highways  of  thought  instead  of  diverging  into  its  by-paths. 
Many  of  the  Lollard  writings,  some  of  the  works  attributed 
to  Wyclif,  many  of  those  attributed  to  Hus,  are  saturated 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  217 

with  these  ideas.  By  diverse  subterranean  channels  we 
find  the  prophetic  spirit  influencing  life  far  and  wide,  ever 
and  anon  rising  to  the  surface  in  open  revolt  or  dangerous 
heresy. 

We  should  do  well  to  note  that  when  the  Spiritual  Fran- 
ciscans launched  on  Europe  the  question  of  the  '  poverty  of 
Christ,'  the  thoughtful  realised  that  beneath  this  academic 
issue  there  were  involved  two  principles  of  importance. 
The  first  struck  at  the  worldliness  of  the  representatives  of 
the  apostles,  and  at  the  existence  of  vast  Church  endow- 
ments. As  a  political  issue  we  see  how  large  a  part  this 
played  in  the  life  and  writings  of  Wyclif ,  and  even  of  some 
who  would  have  had  little  sympathy  with  his  advanced 
ideas.  The  second  was  a  direct  challenge  to  the  papal 
claim  to  be  the  dictator  of  right  and  wrong,  with  powers  of 
binding  and  loosing  at  will,  and  of  dispensing  from  the 
obligations  of  vow  or  rule.  The  leaders  in  this  crusade 
were  Michael  of  Cesena  and  WiUiam  of  Ockham.  In  his 
Contra  Errores  Papae  Michael  denounced  the  utterances  of 
Pope  John  xxii.  as  heresies,  and  appealed  '  to  the  universal 
Church  and  to  a  General  Council  which  in  faith  and  morals 
is  superior  to  the  pope.  For  a  pope  can  err  in  faith  and 
morals,  as  many  human  popes  have  fallen  from  the  faith. 
But  the  universal  Church  cannot  err,  and  a  council  re- 
presenting the  universal  Church  is  also  free  from  error.' 
In  a  flood  of  scholastic  subtleties  William  of  Ockham 
pursued  the  same  theme  to  further  conclusions.  The  pope 
may  err,  a  general  council  may  err,  the  doctors  of  the 
Church  may  err  ;  only  Holy  Scripture  and  the  beliefs  of  the 
Church  are  of  universal  validity,  and  with  these  to  guide 
him  the  meanest  peasant  may  know  the  truth.  The  drift 
of  such  arguments  needs  no  explanation.  The  thoughtful 
realised  that  Europe  had  awakened  to  the  criticism  of  an 
institution  whose  claims  had  been  accepted  for  generations 
as  divine.  Henceforth  the  more  conservative  looked  for 
reformation  to  a  general  council,  the  upshot  of  which  was 


218    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ce. 

Constance  ;  the  more  revolutionary  to  the  working  out 
of  the  plans  of  Marsiglio  and  Ockham.  In  the  next 
generation  the  work  of  these  two  was  taken  up  by  an  even 
greater  iconoclast.  In  many  respects  John  Wyclif  (tl384) 
sums  up  in  himself  the  movements  and  forces,  many  of 
them  contradictory,  which  in  the  previous  century  had 
gathered  for  the  overthrow  of  their  common  foe. 

We  have  referred  to  Marsiglio  of  Padua,  one  of  the  most 
interesting  if  impracticable  of  med.ieval  thinkers.  In  1324, 
with  the  help  of  his  friend,  John  of  Jandun — '  the  two 
beasts,'  as  the  Pope  called  them, '  from  the  abyss  of  Satan ' 
— he  wrote  his  great  work,  Defensor  Pacts,  the  most  original 
political  treatise  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  second  book 
of  this  work  Marsiglio  examines  the  nature  of  the  priest- 
hood and  its  relation  to  the  State.  He  begins  by  defining 
the  Cliurch  as  the  entire  body  of  Christian  men.  The  sole 
business  of  the  priest  is  to  preach  the  faith  and  administer 
the  sacraments.  To  this  duty  his  rights  and  claims  should 
be  limited.  Excommunication,  for  instance,  can  only  be 
decreed  by  the  congregation  to  which  the  believer  belongs  ; 
while  the  clergy,  in  all  but  their  strictly  spiritual  functions, 
must  be  treated  exactly  the  same  as  all  other  members  of 
the  civil  society,  save  only  that  their  crimes  should  be 
punished  with  greater  strictness,  because  they  cannot 
plead  the  same  excuse  of  ignorance.  Marsiglio  follows 
Jerome  in  maintaining  that  bishop  and  priest  are  conver- 
tible terms.  More  original  is  his  claim  that  heresy  must 
be  unpunished  except  in  so  far  as  it  may  prove  dangerous 
to  society.  Even  in  this  case  the  penalty  should  only  be 
inflicted  by  the  civil  courts.  Errors  of  opinion,  '  howsoever 
great  they  may  be,'  must  on  no  account  be  punished.*  Of 
these  Jesus  alone  is  the  judge  in  the  world  to  come. 

Marsiglio  reduced  Church  government  to  a  question  of 
expediency.  Though  in  theory  all  priests  are  equal,  the 
papacy,  he  held,  is  convenient  as  a  symbol  of  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  and  as  providing  a  needed  president  for  its 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  219 

councils.  None  the  less,  Marsiglio  sweeps  aside  all  the 
fictions,  ancient  and  modern,  of  papal  historians.  He  even 
doubts  whether  Peter  was  ever  bishop  of  Rome  at  all ;  he 
disbelieves  in  his  superiority  over  the  other  apostles,  and 
questions  his  power  to  hand  on  his  gift  to  his  successors. 
The  Decretals  he  brushes  aside  as  not  necessary  to  salvation. 
With  rare  historical  insight  Marsiglio  traces  the  origin  of 
the  papacy  to  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  to 
the  donation  of  Constantine,  the  genuineness  of  which  he 
does  not  dispute.  The  power  of  the  keys,  he  holds,  is  but 
of  hmited  extent.  The  keys  open  and  close  the  door  of 
forgiveness,  but  the  turnkey  is  not  the  judge.  Without 
the  penitence  of  the  sinner  priestly  absolution  is  of  no 
avail,  for  it  is  God  alone  who  cleanses  the  man  inwardly. 
The  argument  of  the  "  two  swords  "  he  sweeps  aside  by 
the  text,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  Thus  the 
papacy  can  have  no  temporal  sovereignty  or  jurisdiction — 
*  what  have  priests  to  do  with  meddling  of  secular  co- 
active  judgments  ?  '  With  Marsiglio  the  State  is  absolutely 
supreme ;  '  neither  bishop  nor  pope  have  any  co-active 
jurisdiction  in  this  world,  neither  upon  any  priest,  neither 
upon  any  other  person  being  no  priest,  unless  such  juris- 
diction be  granted  to  them  by  the  human  power,  in  whose 
power  it  is  always  to  remove  and  call  again  the  same 
authority  from  them  for  any  reasonable  cause.'  Ecclesi- 
astics, even  the  Pope  himself,  must  be  subject  to  the 
tribunals  of  the  State  ;  their  number  is  limited  by  its 
pleasure.  To  the  State  also  belongs  all  patronage,  which 
should,  as  a  rule,  be  exercised  by  the  free  election  of  the 
parish  itself.  With  the  parish  also  should  rest  the  power 
of  dismissal.  Ecclesiastical  property  must  be  vested  in 
the  State,  which  can  at  any  time  secularise  superfluities  to 
other  uses. 

Perhaps  the  most  fruitful  of  Marsiglio's  contentions  was 
his  defence  of  a  general  council,  formed  of  clergy  and  laity 
alike,  as  the  supreme  power  in  the  Church.    Such  a  council 


220    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

would  voice  the  Church  Universal,  and  be  a  parliament  of 
the  nations,  both  in  matters  temporal  and  spiritual.  The 
Catholic  creed  is  determined  by  its  interpretations,  though 
these  must  in  all  cases  be  based  on  Scripture  alone,  for  the 
Bible  is  the  foundation  of  faith  and  of  the  authority  of 
the  Church.  To  the  decisions  of  the  council  the  Pope 
would  of  necessity  be  subject,  and  it  alone  could  pronounce 
excommunication  upon  peoples  and  their  rulers. 

Of  necessity  Marsiglio  was  before  his  age.  The  Church 
preferred  to  listen  to  such  champions  of  papal  infallibility 
as  Augustine  Triompho  and  Alvaro  Pelayo.  But  no  seer 
had  a  clearer  vision  of  the  new  order  towards  which  the 
world  was  moving ;  no  prophet  ever  glanced  deeper  into 
the  future.  The  works  of  Marsiglio  give  us  in  clear  out- 
line the  ideals  which  now  regulate  the  progress  of  Europe. 
In  his  emphasis  of  Scripture  we  have  the  voice  of  Luther  ; 
in  his  call  to  the  laity  he  foreshadowed  Wesley  ;  in  his 
view  as  to  the  rights  of  separate  congregations  he  was 
the  forerunner  of  the  Independents.  But  "  in  the  clear 
definition  of  the  limits  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and 
in  his  assertion  of  the  dignity  of  the  individual  believer, 
Marsiglio's  ideas  still  remain  unrealised."  In  these  specu- 
lations he  remains  alone  among  medieval  writers  so  far 
above  his  age  in  the  breadth  of  his  outlook  "  that  the 
truths  which  he  brought  to  light  had  to  be  rediscovered, 
without  even  the  knowledge  that  he  had  found  them 
out  beforehand,  by  the  political  philosophers  of  modern 
times."  1 

Before  we  pass  away  from  the  dreamers  and  seers  of  the 
thirteenth  century  a  word  should  be  added  with  reference 
to  a  revolutionist  of  another  kind,  though  the  seed  that  he 
sowed  was  not  destined  to  bring  forth  immediate  fruit :  we 
refer  to  Roger  Bacon  (d.  1292  ?).  Bacon's  influence  was 
twofold.  As  a  man  of  science  his  achievements  have, 
perhaps,  been  exaggerated  ;  certainly  his  antagonism  to 
1  Poole,  lUwiratioTU  0/ Medieval  Thought,  p.  277. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  221 

speculative  thought.  But  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
the  zeal  with  which  this  martyr  of  science  pursued  his 
way  amid  difficulties  that  would  have  baffled  or  crushed 
others.  Both  in  science  and  philosophy  his  principle  was 
one,  that  truth  cannot  be  attained  by  syllogisms  built  up 
on  a  priori  premises,  to  the  neglect  of  experiment  and  obser- 
vation. He  did  not  despise  authority,  but  the  authority,  if 
we  may  so  put  it,  must  not  rest,  like  the  world  in  the 
Hindoo  cosmogony,  on  the  back  of  a  tortoise.  The  effort 
he  made  to  obtain  texts  of  Aristotle  and  Seneca  shows  the 
value  he  attached  to  those  great  writers  ;  it  shows  also  his 
anxiety  to  get  behind  the  ipse  dixit  of  Schoolmen  to  the 
actual  thoughts  of  their  authorities.  We  see  the  same 
spirit  in  his  insistence  that  the  study  of  Greek  was  the  key 
to  the  real  meaning  of  Aristotle.  With  equal  daring  he 
carried  this  principle  into  theology.  He  insisted  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  in  the  original  was  the  one  foun- 
dation upon  which  the  Queen  of  Sciences  could  rest.  As 
a  Schoolman,  Bacon  was  the  predecessor  of  Scotus  and 
Ockham.  Though  he  founded  no  school  he  powerfully 
assisted  the  revolt,  whose  head-centre  was  in  Oxford,  against 
Aquinas  and  the  great  Dominican  doctors. 


The  great  object  of  the  later  Schoolmen  was  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  theology  of  the  Church — a  determined  quantity 
assumed  to  be  absolutely  true — to  human  consciousness, 
no  longer,  as  Anselm,  by  a  priori  speculations,  or,  as  the 
mystics,  by  '  contemplation,'  but  by  a  scientific,  logical 
system  ('  summa ')  in  which  all  the  forces  of  the  mind 
should  do  homage  to  the  Church.  For  centuries  she  had 
been  slowly  departing  from  the  most  valuable  doctrines  of 
Augustine,  while  his  philosophy  could  contribute  nothing 
to  the  scholastic  disputes.  A  change  was  necessary.  With 
her  customary  intuition  the  Latin  Church  discerned  in 


222    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

Aristotle  the  instrument  she  now  needed.  She  felt  that,  if 
reason  and  authority  are  to  be  made  one,  there  must  be  a 
pope  in  philosophy  as  well  as  in  theology.  Of  the  monastic 
principles  on  the  basis  of  which  Hildebrand  had  reorganised 
the  Church,  "  poverty  "  was  played  out  or  troublesome, 
but  "  obedience  "  still  remained,  and  had  become  almost 
synonymous  with  religion,  vital  for  theology. 

For  this  end  Rome  went^jontrary  to  her  former  Judg- 
ments. In  1210  the  use  of  Aristotle  had  been  officially 
condemned  by  the  synod  of  Paris.  In  1228  Gregory  ix. 
warned  the  masters  regent  of  theology  in  Paris  against 
mundane  science,  and  the  adulteration  of  the  word  of  God 
with  the  figments  of  the  philosophers.  '  Theologians,'  he 
said, '  ought  to  expound  theology  according  to  the  approved 
traditions  of  the  saints,'  and  refuse  the  aid  of  '  carnal 
weapons.'  But  the  current  was  too  strong  even  for 
Gregory  ix.  The  condemnation,  renewed  in  1231,  against, 
students  using  the  Aristotelian  natural  philosophy  was, 
coupled  with  the  significant  addition,  '  imtil  it  shall  have  < 
been  examined  and  purged  from  all  suspicion  of  error.'  A 
commission  of  three  was  appointed  by  Gregory  for  this 
purpose.  They  were  bidden  to  cut  out  '  doctrines  either 
erroneous  or  productive  of  scandal  or  error,'  so  that  '  with  • 
the  removal  of  the  suspicious  matters  the  rest  might  be" 
studied  harmlessly.'  The  commission  was  not  long  in 
bringing  in  its  report,  the  result  of  which  was  the  setting 
aside  of  the  restriction,  and  the  issue  of  a  decree  for  the 
absolution  of  the  masters  and  students  who  had  been  read- 
ing the  condemned  books.  Rome  could  not  do  otherwise  ; 
for  Aristotle,  his  physical  works  included,  had  become  the 
text-book  of  the  Church,  his  authority  final  in  almost  every 
branch  of  knowledge.  On  19th  March  1255  the  books 
of  the  *  new  logic  '  were  formally  adopted  by  Paris  as  the 
text-books  of  the  university.  Oxford,  the  second  univeij- 
sity  of  Europe,  followed  suit  in  1267  ;  the  new  universities, 
as  they  were  estabhshed,  copied  the  example.     Kings  and 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  223 

potentates  may  boast  of  their  conquests,  but  Aristotle 
from  his  tomb  ruled  for  centuries  over  the  intellect  of 
almost  universal  man,  Christian  and  Muslim  alike.  Even 
to-day  "  the  legend  "  of  his  dialectics  "  though  worn  is  not 
effaced  from  the  current  coin  of  our  philosophy  and  our 
theology."  ^ 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  thought  more  remark- 
able than  the  rapidity  with  which  in  the  thirteenth  century 
Aristotle  captured  the  Church.  One  illustration  must 
suffice.  The  name  of  Aristotle,  it  would  appear,  only 
occurs  in  one  incidental  reference  in  the  great  medieval 
text-book  of  theology,  Peter  Lombard's  Sentences.  A 
century  later  the  name  of  the  Stagirite  is  more  familiar 
than  that  of  St.  Augustine.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  the  whole  of  Aristotle's  works,  previously 
only  known  in  fragments,  and  held  secondary  to  Plato,  were 
gradually  making  their  way  into  the  Western  world,  in 
part  through  the  orthodox  channel  of  the  translation  of 
the  Organon-mvide  about  1128  by  James  of  Venice,  in  part 
through  intercourse  with  the  Moors  in  Spain,  in  part 
through  the  Crusades,  especially  through  the  Latin  con- 
quest of  Constantinople  (1204).  Of  these  channels  the 
most  important  was  the  Arabian.  In  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century  portions  of  Aristotle  were  translated  into 
Latin  from  the  Arabic  commentaries  of  Avicenna  by  a 
band  of  workers  in  the  employ  of  Archbishop  Raymund 
of  Seville.  Shortly  before  1230  the  physical  books  of 
Aristotle,  translated  from  the  Arabic  of  Averroes  in  part 
by  the  famous  Michael  Scot  of  Toledo,  made  their  appear- 
ance in  $^orthem  Europe.  But  the  Aristotle  thus  trans- 
lated was  overlaid-^  with  Averroistic  glosses.  With  the 
new  renderirtg  from  the  Greek  made  in  1273  by  the  Do- 
minican friar  Wil^liam  of  Brabant,  the  Arabic  glosses  ceased 
to  be  so  promihent.  The  need  of  a  new  translation  will 
be  evident,  if  it  be  true  that,  as  Renan  tells  us,  some  of 

1  Hampden,  Scholastic  Philo&ophy,  p.4€i--' 


224  CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    Fch. 

the  current  translations  were  really  "  Latin  translations 
from  a  Hebrew  translation  of  a  comment  aiy  of  Averroes 
made  on  an  Arabic  translation  of  a  Syriac  translation  of  a 
Greek  text."  ^ 

The  new  Aristotle,  especially  in  his  Eastern  dress,  was 
at  first  regarded  by  the  Church  with  suspicion  and  dread. 
His  introduction  led  to  an  outburst  of  scepticism  ;  his 
Arab  interpreters  threatened  to  sweep  men  away  from 
their  moorings  into  vasty  deeps  of  pantheism.  The  anti- 
Christian  elements  in  Aristotle,  or  rather  in  Averroes,  were 
emphasised  to  the  full.  In  1210,  for  instance,  David  of 
Dinant  was  condemned  at  Paris  for  teaching  that  '  God, 
intelUgence,  and  matter  are  a  single  thing,  one  and  the 
same.'  The  intellects  of  men  seemed  intoxicated  with 
the  new  powers  which  the  method  of  Aristotle  had  revealed. 
Reality  became  secondary  to  syllogistic  sn^artness.  We 
read  of  a  certain  Parisian  master,  Simon  of  jTpuKnai,  who 
defended  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  '  so  eloquently,  so 
lucidly,  so  catholicly'  that  thunders  of  applause  greeted 
his  performance.  At  once  he  announced  that  he  could 
demolish  with  equal  plausibility  the  faith  that  he  had  that 
day  maintained.  Matthew  of  Paris  tells  us  of  the  stroke 
of  paralysis  which  punished  his  blasphemies,  and  how 
*  with  difficulty  the  famous  doctor  releamed  from  his  own 
child  the  Credo  and  Paternoster.^  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of 
all  dangers  Aristotle  conquered.  Unti>  the  Reformation 
his  sway  over  the  Church  was  almost  undisputed. 

As  a  result  of  this  adoption  of  Aristotle  by  the  Church, 
the  great  Arabic  and  Jewish  commentators  of  the  master 
were  no  Idnger  treated  as  atheists  and  heretics.  Their 
theories  were  examined,  their  arguments  discussed,  often- 
times with  a  strange  sympathy.  The  celebrated  Jewish 
theologian,  Moses  Maimonides  (tl204),  ascribed  to  Aris- 
totle unconditioned  authority  in  sublunary  science;  and 
the  influence  of  Maimonides  on  Aquinas  was  Considerable. 

1  Beuau,  Aittrroet,  p.  52. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  225 

At  Paris  in  1347  every  Master  of  Arts  was  required  to 
swear  that  he  would  teach  no  doctrine  inconsistent  '  with 
that  of  Aristotle,  and  his  commentator  Averroes.'  Dante, 
the  faithful  exponent  of  Aquinas,  even  places  Averroes 
and  Avicenna  in  the  circle  of  those  who  only  needed 
baptism  in  order  to  be  saved. 

The  infljience  of  these  two  Arabs  upon  Christian  thought 
forms  (Jne'-bf  the  most  astonishing  chapters  in  the  history 
of  the  Church.  Of  the  two  men  Avicenna  (a  Latinised 
form  of  the  Arabic  Abu  'Ibn  Sina)  was  the  more  purely 
Eastern.  The  greater  part  of  his  life  (980-1036)  was  spent 
at  the  court  of  Bokhara,  where  his  skill  as  a  physician 
procured  him  great  favour.  He  was  one  of  the  leaders 
in  a  '  school  of  philosophers ' — al  faldsifa,  as  the  Arabs 
transliterated  it — who  made  a  special  study  of  the  Greek 
works  introduced  to  the  Arabs  by  Syrian  Monophysites 
and  Nestorians.  Though  not  the  founder  of  Arabic 
Scholasticism,  he  first  gave  it  clear,  systematic  expression. 
His  knowledge  of  Aristotle's  logical  works  was  sound, 
but  of  his  other  philosophical  treatises  more  superficial. 
Averroes  (a  corruption  of  the  Arabic  name  Abu  'Ibn 
Rashd)  was  born  at  Cordova,  of  which  city  his  grandfather 
had  been  kadi,  in  1126.  He  died  at  Marrakesh  in  1198, 
a  few  years  before  the  great  battle  of  Las  Navas  de  Tolosa 
(1212)  broke  for  ever  the  dominion  of  the  Moors  in  Spain. 
Many  of  his  extensive  and  careful  commentaries  upon  Aris- 
totle, whom  he  regarded  with  the  highest  reverence,  were 
translated  into  Latin  and  Hebrew,  though  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  these  Latin  translations  give  us  a  true  idea  of 
his  doctrine.  But,  whether  faulty  or  not,  it  is  to  these 
Latin  translations  that  Averroes  owes  his  influence  upon 
Christian  thought. 

There  was  much  in  the  philosophy  of  Averroes,  as  pre- 
sented by  his  Latin  interpreters,  that  naturally  gave  rise 
to  suspicion.  His  doctrine  has  a  strongly  marked  evolu- 
tionary character,  in  which  the  etemalness  of  matter,  the 

P 


226    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

evolution  of  the  germ  by  its  own  latent  power,  the  im- 
personality of  intelligence,  absolute  determinism,  and  the 
rcabsorption  of  the  individual,  constitute  essential  points. 
It  is  possible  that  on  some  points  his  views  have  been 
exaggerated  and  misrepresented  by  opponents.  For  in- 
stance Averroes,  though  claiming  that  the  world  is  eternal, 
carefully  distinguishes  between  an  eternity  without  agent 
or  cause,  which  can  be  ascribed  to  God  alone,  and  the 
eternity  with  cause  of  a  continuous  and  incessant  creation. 
But  while  the  student  of  the  original  philosophy  of  Averroes 
may  see  reasons  for  suspension  of  judgment,  for  the  student 
of  Christian  thought  the  charges  in  the  main  are  true.  The 
Averroes  known  to  the  West  was  interpreted  almost  univer- 
sally to  hold  these  doctrines. 

For  Averroes,  as  indeed  for  the  whole  Arabic  school,  with 
its  constant  insistence  that  God  is  one,  the  great  difficulty 
is  to  explain  the  origin  of  individuality.  la  his  efforts  to 
account  for  the  individual  he  seems  at  times  to  claim  that 
God  is  ignorant  of  His  own  creation.  To  the  same  cause  we 
can  trace  his  insistence  that  there  is  but  one  soul,  or  active 
reason,  in  the  universe,  as  there  is  but  one  light,  a  con- 
clusion that  led  to  the  accusation  of  his  opponents  that  he 
denied  immortality,  or  rather  denied  that  the  soul  could 
remain  individualised  after  the  death  of  the  body.  This 
dogma  of  Averroes  was  the  consequence  of  his  interpre- 
tations of  Aristotle's  doctrine  of  the  lors  ttou/tikos,  or 
Creative  Reason  immanent  both  in  mind  and  in  the  ex- 
ternal world,  whereby  it  is  possible  for  the  mind  to  know 
things.  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias  (fl.  200  a.d.)  explained 
this  Creative  Reason  as  no  faculty  or  part  of  the  soul  itself, 
but  something  working  from  without  upon  the  passive 
intellect  {vod^  Tra^r/riKos)  ;  thus  identifying  it  with  the 
Spirit  of  God  working  in  us.  As  death  was  the  cessation 
of  the  passive  intellect,  this  involved  the  denial  of  im- 
mortality. From  an  Arabic  translation  of  Alexander  the 
idea  had  been  taken  up  by  Averroes. 


IX]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  227 

In  spite  of  the  services  of  Averroes  in  the  introduction 
of  Aristotle  to  the  West,  it  was  impossible  that  his  teaching 
should  go  unchallenged  in  the  Church.  Monopsychism, 
the  belief  that  there  is  only  one  active  intellect  in  the  world, 
or  naturalistic  pantheism  in  any  form  are  fatal  to  Chris- 
tianity. The  triumph  of  Averroes  would  have  been  the 
reintroduction  of  Gnosticism.  But  the  excitement  of 
the  new  ideas  soon  passed  away  ;  the  vigilance  of  the 
authorities  repressed  dangerous  heresy.  Above  all,  the 
Church  itself  developed  a  body  of  orthodox  AristoteUan 
doctrine  under  the  lead  of  its  great  scholastic  doctors. 


m 

In  her  exaltation  of  Aristotle  into  the  new  dictator  of 
reason  the  Latin  Church  not  only  went  back  on  her  own 
decisions,  but  cut  herself  off  from  the  philosophic  drift  of 
the  Early  Church.  To  the  early  fathers  Aristotle,  with 
his  dualisti6  outlook,  with  his  insistence  upon  clear  think- 
ing as  the  one  cure  for  all  the  evils  of  the  individual  or  of 
society,  seemed  "  a  profane  intruder,  bringing  the  noisy 
jargon  of  the  world  into  a  sanctuary  where  every  thought 
and  feeling  should  be  hushed  in  holy  cojiiitemplation."  ^ 
Aristotle,  therefore,  was  neglected  by  all  the  orthodox, 
with  the  exception  of  the  school  of  Antioch,  until  Augus- 
tine gave  to  the  theology  of  the  West  that  bent  which,  to 
some  degree,  it  still  retains.  The  thoughi^f  the  Church 
— especially  in  the  East,  where  the  influence  of  Clement 
and  Origen  was  supreme — had  been  moulded,  broadly 
considered,  on  the  idealism  or  monism  of  Plato,  with  a 
leaven  of  Stoic  influence.  Augustine  too,  considered 
philosophically,  was  a  disciple  of  Plato,  and  that,  too, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  tendency  of  Plato  was  to 
modify,  if  not  supersede.  Christian  dogma.  But  with  the 
1  Hampden,  Scholastic  Philosophy,  p.  62, 


228    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

suppression  by  Jusl^nian  in  529  of  Neoplatonism,  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy  gained  in  authority.  The  Aris- 
totle whom  the  East  had  neglected  became  in  due  course 
the  great  doctor  of  the  Latin  Church.  At  the  same  time, 
though  for  the  theologian  this  is  a  minor  matter,  the 
Church  inverted  the  position  which  Plato  and  Aristotle 
had  held  in  the  development  of  philosophy. 

For  this  change  from  Plato  to  Aristotle  there  were  other 
reasons  than  the  accident  of  his  new  discovery.  In  every 
age  the  study  of  Plato  has  tended  in  a  twofold  direction. 
His  doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God  is  the  basis  of  all 
mysticism  and  of  all  pantheism,  while  his  dreams  of  ideal 
beauty  and  perfection  lead  to  dissatisfaction  with  things 
as  they  are.  Aristotle,  on  the  contrary,  has  been  called 
"  the  high  priest  of  common-sense."  "  Even  in  its  classical 
form  Aristotelianism  is  a  morality  without  religion."  ^  As 
a  justification  of  this  stem  verdict  we  may  instance  the 
Aristotelian  position  that  a  complete  provision  of  external 
goods  is  an  indispensable  condition  of  well-living.  The 
last  charge  that  could  be  brought  against  Aristotle  is  mys- 
ticism, for  his  "  final  appeal  is  always  to  man's  natural 
reason."  ^  The  deeper  sources  of  dispeace,  of  pain  of  soul, 
of  unfulfilled  wants  of  the  heart,  remain  dark  in  his 
investigation.  He  is  only  interested  in  the  life  of  the  soul 
in  so  far  as  it  turns  outward  to  a  great  practical  world. 
Thus  while  Plato  points  the  way  to  a  world  where  things 
correspond  to  the  perfection  of  their  original  Divine  Idea, 
the  tendency  of  Aristotle,  with  his  doctrine  of  the  mean, 
is  to  concentrate  thought  on  the  exact  definition  of  existing 
species  and  institutions. 

This  it  was  that  commended  him  to  the  busy  spirit  of 
the  Latin  Churchmen.  For  the  medieval  Church  was 
profoundly  satisfied  that  her  institution  was  part  of  the 
eternal  order  of  the  universe.     She  did  not  seek  ideal 

»  Harnack,  II.  D.  v.  p.  109  n. 

s  Brewer,  Monuin4nta  Franciscana,  i.  p.  liii. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  229 

reconstruction,  but  the  reasoned  defence  of  a  set  of  dogmas 
in  the  form  in  which  they  were  already  estabhshed.  For 
the  speculations  of  the  East  she  cared  nothing  ;  the  centre 
of  her  theology  was  not  so  much  God  as  man,  his  state, 
relations,  and  duties.  And  in  this  theology  of  man  the 
central  idea  was  the  Civitas  Dei,  that  spiritualised  empire 
and  organisation  which  "  named  the  name  of  Christ,  but 
whose  form  was  the  form  of  Caesar."  Its  continuous  and 
comprehensive  existence  was  the  first  axiom  of  truth.  By 
this  she  demonstrated  her  correspondence  with  the  Divine 
Ideal ;  nor  was  she  disturbed  in  this  self-complacency  by 
her  own  shortcomings,  by  the  ideal  yearning  of  the  mystics, 
or  the  angry  outbursts  of  the  discontented. 

Of  this  clerical  self-satisfaction,  which  demanded  adjust- 
ment not  progress,  dialectics  not  metaphysics,  Aristotle 
was  the  natural  prophet.  His  system  provided  means  for 
accomplishing  the  impossible,  "  of  uniting  immanence  and 
transcendence,  history  and  miracle,  the  immutability  of 
God  and  mutability.  Idealism  and  Realism,  reason  and 
authority."  ^  In  the  development  of  the  conception  of  the 
Church  as  a  monarchy  his  influence  was  invaluable.  "  If 
churches  always  canonised  their  benefactors,  he  would 
long  ago  have  been  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  calendar. 
There  were  many  schoolmen,  but  they  all  had  one  master, 
and  they  built  by  his  help,  and  to  his  honour,  systems 
that  even  he  would  have  acknowledged  to  be  encyclopaedic 
and  marvels  of  architectonic  craft."  ^  Their  aim  was  to 
exhibit  the  unity  in  thought  of  reason  and  authority,  of 
the  papal  Church  and  its  sacerdotal  theology.  Thus  the 
Papacy  and  Scholasticism  grew  strong  and  decayed  to- 
gether. The  forces  that  dissolved  the  one  disintegrated  the 
other,  leaving  behind  the  ponderous  tomes  in  our  libraries 
which,  like  the  tombstones  of  our  cemeteries,  speak  of 
departed  reputations. 

1  Hamack,  11.  D.  vi.  p.  43. 

*  Fairbairn,  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,  p.  119. 


230    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

Yet  one  reputation  can  never  die.  For  the  student  of 
Church  history  it  is  all-important  that  he  realise  the  vast 
significance  of  the  teaching  of  the  greatest  of  all  Schoolmen — 
Thomas  Aquinas  (1225-1274),  the  glory  of  the  Dominicans. 
The  work  of  Albert  the  Great  we  can  pass  by.  All  that 
was  valuable  in  it  was  given  form  and  grace  by  his  greatest 
pupil,  who  built  carefully  upon  the  foundations  he  had  laid. 
The  world-historical  importance  of  Thomas  Aquinas  lies 
in  his  synthesis  of  Aristotle,  Augustine,  and  the  pseudo- 
Dionysius  with  the  creed  and  practice  of  papal  Rome.  In 
Augustine,  Rome  had  ever  recognised  the  champion  of  her 
faith,  though  careful  to  crush  those  who,  like  Gottschalk, 
should  exaggerate  his  predestinarian  errors.  But  the  for- 
mulae of  Augustine  were  full  of  contradictions,  and  i^  the 
nine  centuries  since  his  death  the  Western  Church  had 
drifted  away  from  some  of  his  main  tenets.  A  new  syn- 
thesis was  needed  if  the  reasonableness  of  the  current 
faith  and  practice  should  be  maintained.  In  the  pseudo- 
Dionysius  the  Western  Church  recognised  the  chief  source 
of  its  mysticism,  and  in  Thomas  there  is  full  emphasis  of 
the  value  of  a  sane  mysticism  based  upon  communion  with 
God.  The  extent  of  the  mysticism  of  Thomas  is  seen  in 
the  exaggerated  attempt  of  Denifle  to  show  that  Meister 
Eckhart  owes  everything  to  him.  In  Aristotle,  as  we  have 
seen,  we  have  the  opponent  of  mysticism,  the  exponent 
of  cold  reason  and  formal  logic.  But  the  Aristotle  of 
Aquinas  is  probably  coloured  by  the  Neoplatonism  that 
had  been  introduced  into  it  from  the  days  of  Alexander  of 
Aphrodisias.  Nor  must  we  in  this  connection  entirely 
overlook  the  influence  of  Maimonides  and  the  Arabs. 

In  seventeen  folio  volumes  Thomas  undertook  to  elimin- 
ate difficulties  and  obtain  a  homogeneous  creed.  The 
result  is  "  one  of  the  most  magnificent  monuments  of  the 
human  intellect,  dwarfing  all  other  bodies  of  theology  into 
insignificance.  Apart  from  its  importance  as  the  authori- 
tative code  of  Latin  Christianity,  it  is  great  as  a  work  of 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  231 

art."  ^  Hamack  puts  his  finger  on  the  cause  of  the  success. 
"  Just  as  the  perfect  Gothic  cathedral,  from  its  exhibiting 
what  is  really  an  organic  style,  expresses  a  single  archi- 
tectural thought,  and  subordinates  all  to  this,  so  this 
structure  of  thought,  although  all  ecclesiastical  doctrines 
are  faithfully  taken  account  of,  still  proclaims  the  one 
thought,  that  the  soul  has  had  its  origin  in  God,  and 
returns  to  Him  through  Christ."  ^  Yet  from  the  nature  of 
the  case  the  new  Augustine  was  not  able  to  create  a  satis- 
factory unity  ;  the  elements  were  too  contradictory.  But 
one  thing  Aquinas  did  which  needs  no  reversal.  Hitherto 
there  had  been  no  formal  distinction  between  the  domain 
of  philosophy  and  that  of  theology.  Thomas  laid  down 
a  clear  line  between  theology  and  philosophy,  between 
natural  and  revealed  religion,  and  the  province  of  reason 
as  regards  bc/th,  which  has  remained  in  force  among 
thinkers  of  all  creeds  ever  since.  Philosophy  passes  from 
the  consideration  of  the  creatures  to  God  ;  theology  from 
God  to  the  creature. 

TIjomism  Jias  become  the  standard  theology  of  the 
Roman  Church.  The  question,  therefore,  whether  as  a 
system  it  is  still  valid  brings  in  large  considerations  to 
which  we  can  here  attempt  no  answer.  But  one  thing  is 
clear :  Thomism  and  Evolution  are  absolutely  incom- 
patible. Aquinas'  future  reputation  cannot  therefore  but 
be  regarded  as  uncertain.  To  own  this  is  only  to  emphasise 
the  real  nature  of  his  task.  "  The  work  which  Aquinas 
did  for  the  Church  of  his  day — the  fusion  of  the  highest 
speculative  thought  of  the  time  with  its  profoundest 
spiritual  convictions,  the  reconciliation  of  the  new  truths 
of  the  present  with  the  kernel  of  truth  embodied  in  the 
traditional  creed — is  a  task  which  will  have  to  be  done  again 
and  again  so  long  as  the  human  mind  continues  progressive, 
and  religion  remains  a  vital  force  with  it.     It  will  have  to 

1  Hastings,  K.R.E.  i.  p.  657. 
'  Hamack,  U.D.  vi.  p.  160. 


232    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

be  done  in  a  different  spirit,  by  different  methods,  and  with 
very  different  results  from  those  of  the  Summa.  But  in 
one  respect  the  work  of  Aquinas  is  built  on  the  solid  foun- 
dation upon  which  all  such  efforts  must  repose — the  grand 
conviction  that  religion  is  rational  and  that  reason  is 
divine,  and  that  all  knowledge  and  all  truth  must  be 
capable  of  harmonious  adjustment."  ^  It  is  characteristic 
both  of  the  man  and  his  work  that  when  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties arose  while  he  was  writing,  he  laid  all  aside  to  seek 
enlightenment  in  prayer. 

The  theology  of  Thomas  marks  the  hour  of  Rome's 
greatest  triumph.  After  overcoming  all  other  powers  she 
annexed  the  human  reason  itself.  With  the  death  of 
Thomas  we  begin  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  thought. 
Henceforth  in  every  movement  there  lurks,  or  seems  to 
lurk,  the  struggle  of  reason  and  faith.  The  triumph  of 
Thomas  had  been  the  triumph  of  a  moderate  Realism. 
Nominalism  seemed  silenced,  but  in  the  next  generation  it 
recovered  its  strength.  But  more  important  than  the 
victory  of  a  philosophical  creed  was  the  powerful  dissolvent 
of  all  faith,  or  rather  of  the  Thomist  conceptions  of  faith, 
which  the  leaders  in  this  reaction  introduced  into  the 
/  schools.  For  Nominalism,  by  denying  objective  reality  to 
general  notions,  leads,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  experience  of  the  senses,  i.e.  of  inductive 
science,  as  the  test  of  reality.  But  the  full  consequences 
of  this  tendency  were  not  felt  until  after  the  discredit  of 
Scholasticism  in  general.  A  prior  result  was  an  outburst 
of  philosophic  scepticism,  the  leader  of  which  was  the 
opponent  of  Thomas,  the  famous  Franciscan  John  Duns 
Scotus.* 

The  fates  have  dealt  hardly  with  the  writings  of  this 
marvellous  Scot.     His  interminable  length  and  spider-like 

»  Rashdall,  Univs.  in  Middle  Ages,  i.  p.  367  ;  cf.  suyra,  p.  44. 

*  Born  (?  1274)  probably  at  Duns  in  Berwick,  die<l  atColngn*^  7th  November 
1808.  In  1300  we  find  him  at  Oxford  in  a  list  of  Franciscan  friars  presented 
for  ordination.    That  he  wm  eTer  at  Merton  la  an  impossible  legend. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  233 

logic  concentrated  upon  him  the  wrath  of  the  New 
Learning.  Luther,  who  was  brought  up  at  a  German 
university  where  NominaHsm  reigned  supreme,  arrayed 
against  him  the  hatred  of  the  Reformers.  Tyndale  and 
others  used  his  name  as  the  synonym  for  a  stupid,  a  meaning 
which  still  cleaves  to  it.  Colet  could  not  speak  of  him  with 
patience,  and  caused  Erasmus,  who  had  been  nurtured 
on  his  subtleties  in  Paris,  to  abhor  him  also.^  In  1535 
Layton  wrote  to  Thomas  Cromwell  :  '  We  have  set  Dunce 
in  Bocardo  and  have  utterly  banished  him  Oxford  for  ever. 
He  is  now  made  a  common  servant  to  every  man,  fast  nailed 
upon  posts  in  all  houses  of  common  easement.'  The  New 
Learning  had  no  sympathy  with  the  fallen  Schoolmen. 
With  the  cry  of  Vae  Victis  it  overwhelmed  them  all  with 
contempt,  indifferent  alike  to  their  superhuman  diligence, 
their  manifest  desire  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  things,  their 
high  ideals — however  inadequate  the  accomplishment — 
of  a  science  which  should  embrace  all  in  one  grand  whole 
within  the  fold  of  the  Church. 

Of  the  influence  of  Duns  and  the  acuteness  of  his  intellect 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Though  not  himself  a  Nominalist, 
no  one  did  more  to  secure  for  Nominalism  the  triumph 
which  it  won  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  drift  of  his 
teaching  is  also  clear.  In  twelve  volumes  this  remarkable 
Scot  destroyed  by  his  criticism  of  Thomas  the  rational 
grounds  of  faith,  and  therefore  the  validity  of  the  whole 
scholastic  method.  Reason,  he  held,  relates  solely  to  the 
realm  of  the  worldly  and  sensible  ;  Belief  is  a  mere  matter 
of  obedience  to  the  unconditional  will  of  God,  or  rather 
of  subjection  to  the  authority  of  the  Church.  Thus  he 
shook  confidence  in  the  Augustinian  conceptions  of  grace. 
The  Augustinian  doctrine  of  sin  was  equally  destroyed  by 
his  reduction  of  morals  to  the  arbitrary  and  unintelligent, 
as  we  see  in  his  statement  that  murder  would  be  right  if 
commanded  by  God.  The  ease  with  which  such  arbitrary 
1  Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformers^  pp.  102-112. 


234   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION    [ch. 

ethics  could  be  changed  into  the  doctrine  that  the  end 
•  justifies  the  means,  and  that  the  Church's  power  of  binding 
and  loosing  is  equivalent  to  '  the  good,'  has  probably  led  to 
the  favour  with  which  Duns  has  always  been  regarded  by 
the  Jesuits.  Nor  did  Duns  see  that  such  unreality  in  sin 
could  only  result  in  the  unreality  of  redemption,  and  of  love. 
Though  himself  an  ardent  champion  of  the  Roman  creed, 
even  in  the  extremer  forms — Duns  defended  as  a  Franciscan 
the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  which  Thomas 
the  Dominican  had  refused  to  recognise — his  criticism  of 
^  the  validity  of  the  arguments  put  forward  in  defence  of 
faith  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming  rupture  of  the  alliance 
between  philosophy  and  theology.  We  see  this  rupture  also 
in  his  emphasis  of  the  independence  of  all  secular  sciences 
— a  necessary  step,  we  may  remark,  for  their  true  develop- 
ment— and  the  independence  of  the  world  as  over  against 
God.  He  will  not  allow  any  place  for  reason  in  such  a 
doctrine  as  immortality.  His  appeal  to  the  sacred  and 
inviolable  authority  of  the  Roman  Church — he  would  not 
believe,  he  said,  even  the  Gospels  save  on  the  witness  of 
the  Church — was  a  mere  personal  conviction,  full  use  of 
which,  however,  was  made  by  his  later  disciples  in  the 
development  of  papal  autocracy.  His  destructive  criticism 
bore  fruit  after  he  had  passed  away.  In  some  minds  it  led 
to  scepticism.  With  Duns  we  mark  for  Scholasticism  the 
beginning  of  the  end.  In  others  we  see  its  results  in  "  the 
emotional  prostration  before  authority,  popularly  called 
faith."  ^  It  is  this  last  that  gives  him  his  prominence  in 
the  life  and  thought  of  the  medieval  world. 


IV 

As  yet  we  have  kept  clear  of  the  great  struggle  between 
Nominalists  and  Realists.     But  the  later  theological  bear- 
ings of  the  controversy,  especially  in  their  connection  with 
1  Rashdall,  Unim.  u.  p.  534 ;  cf.  Harnack,  H,D.  vi.  p.  164. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  235 

the  medieval  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation,  demand  some 
notice.  For  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  came  about 
a  curious  inversion  of  the  relations  between  ReaUsm  and 
Orthodoxy.  Hitherto  Nominahsm  had  been  branded 
by  the  Church  as  heretical.  Its  dangerous  tendencies  had 
become  manifest,  first  in  Roscelin,  who,  starting  with  the 
assumption  that  the  individual  alone  is  real,  had  driven 
the  theologians  to  choose  between  an  absolute  unitarianism 
and  a  tritheistic  explanation  of  the  Trinity.  This  early 
outcome  rather  than  any  prescient  discernment  that,  if 
the  individual  is  the  only  real,  Nominalism  must  end  in 
the  sensationalistic  scepticism  of  Hume,  had  alarmed,  not 
without  reason,  the  fathers  of  the  Church.  For  long 
years  Realism  and  Orthodoxy  were  looked  upon  as  almost 
synonymous.  But  when  William  of  Ockham  refounded 
Nominalism,  its  fortunes  became  curiously  altered. 

In  many  respects  the  Nominalism  of  Ockham  is  a  philo- 
sophy of  centuries  later.  Some  of  it  might  have  come  from 
the  pen  of  Hobbes.  Realism,  he  argued,  in  whatever  form 
it  may  be  expressed,  was  bound  to  lead  to  absurdities  ; 
the  universal  exists  only  in  the  thinking  mind,  and  is  thus 
essentially  a  relation.  Even  in  the  mind  of  God  universale 
do  not  exist,  but  are  simply  God's  knowledge  of  singulars, 
which  alone  have  reality.  This  modem  doctrine  of  Con- 
ceptualism  was  followed  up,  as  it  is  often  followed  up 
to-day,  by  the  relegation  of  all  knowledge  which  transcends 
mere  experience  to  the  sphere  of  faith.  In  this  point, 
especially,  we  see  the  essential  oneness,  though  for  different 
causes,  of  Duns  and  Ockham.  Thus  Ockham,  as  Duns 
before  him,  heralds  the  dissolution  of  Scholasticism.  The 
Thomist  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  reason  and  faith  is  giving 
place  to  a  growing  consciousness  of  their  discrepancy. 

The  Nominalism  of  Oojkham  swept  all  before  it.  Four 
times  between  1339  ariid  1347  were  his  writings  pro- 
scribed by  the  university  of  Paris,  and  his  doctrines  con- 
demned.    At  Avignon,  as  the  catalogue  of  the  papal  hbrary 


236    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION   [ch. 

shows,  Nominalist  writers  were  not  admitted.  But  from 
the  first  the  condemnation  was  vain.  By  the  time  of  the 
council  of  Constance,  NominaUsm  was  in  the  ascendant 
in  Germany,  and,  though  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  ^^i^nce  also. 
At  Paris  the  great  chancellor  of  the  university,  the  cele- 
brated John  Gerson,  was  its  open  advocate.  The  effect  of 
this  revival  of  Nominalism  was  felt  most  disastrously, 
strange  to  say,  by  the  Reformers  of  the  day.  Nominalism 
had  become  the  ally  of  the  extreme  materialistic  conceptions 
of  Transubstantiation  which  the  fifteenth  centur}^  did  so 
much  to  develop,  and  against  which  the  Reformers  protested. 

To  understand  the  growth  of  this  alliance  and  its  conse- 
quence we  must  glance  at  the  later  history  of  the  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation.  In  the  dispute  of  Lanfranc  and 
Berengar,  as  in  the  previous  discussion  of  the  dogma,  we 
see  the  union  of  Realism  and  Orthodoxy.  For  Lanfranc 
and  others  had  tried  to  save  the  doctrine  from  its  grosser 
forms  by  falling  back  upon  the  distinction  of  Realism  be- 
tween the  substance — that  impalpable  but  real  universal 
which  was  held  to  be  present  in  every  particular  included 
under  it — and  the  accidents  or  sensible  qualities  which 
come  into  existence  when  the  pure  universal  clothes  itself 
with  matter.  The  bread  and  wine,  at  the  touch  of  that 
glorious  Substance  which  takes  possession  of  them,  pass 
out  of  existence  and  are  lost,  leaving  behind  them  nothing 
but  shadowy  appearances  of  themselves — accidents — 
though  the  underlying  reality  is  something  totally  different. 

But  this  explanation,  though  at  first  it  seems  to  have 
satisfied  the  medieval  Church,  was  soon  discovered  to  be 
itself  a  mystery  requiring  explanation ;  for  how  can 
appearances  possibly  exist  without  anything  that  appears, 
how  can  the  noumenon  alone  be  changed  while  the 
phenomena  remain  ?  The  subtle  intellect  of  Thomas 
Aquinas  answered  the  question  by  his  conception  of 
*  quantity,*  or  as  we  should  now  term  it,  subsistence,  as 
distinct    from    substance.     '  Quantity '    remains    in    the 


dl]  the  schoolmen  237 

Eucharist  "  as  the  subject  of  form,  colour,  movement, 
taste,  and  all  other  phenomena  observed  in  the  visible 
and  tangible  Host.  The  reader  will,  of  course,  ask  :  '  Can 
*  quantity  '  exist  without  anything  that  has  quantity  ?  ' 
But  the  very  question  shows  that  he  has  not  sufficiently 
understood  the  hypothesis.  '  Quantity  '  is  not  a  mere 
abstraction,  not  a  mere  mode  of  being  :  it  is  quite  different 
from  extension,  for  it  is  that  which  makes  extension,  and 
may  be  defined  as  a  force  that  extends  material  substance. 
.  .  .  Thus  after  the  words  of  consecration  the  substance 
of  bread  is  no  longer  there,  but  quantity  takes  its  place  and 
upholds  the  other  accidents  naturally."  ^  When  asked  what 
becomes  of  the  bread  after  consecration,  St.  Thomas  is  in  a 
difficulty  ;  he  admits  that  the  bread  is  nowhere,  but  denies 
that  it  is  annihilated,  since  it  is  changed  into  Christ's  body. 
According  to  Wyclif,  opinions  differed  considerably  as  to 
what  remained ;  in  the  province  of  Canterbury  the  favourite 
idea  was  weight ;  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  which  then  in- 
cluded Oxford,  '  quantity  ' ;  in  Wales  and  Ireland,  quality. 
The  theology  of  Aquinas  is  hard  to  understand,  and  is 
not,  we  believe,  an  article  de  fide.  There  are,  in  fact,  three 
other  explanations  of  the  dogma,  all  of  which  are  allowed 
by  the  Roman  Church,  and  between  which  a  cautious  in- 
fallibility takes  care  not  to  decide.  The  first  of  these  is  the 
theory  of  the  great  rival  of  Aquinas,  John  Duns  Scotus.^ 
Scotus  takes  refuge  in  his  treatment  of  Transubstantiation, 
as  he  had  done  in  his  doctrine  of  Creation,  of  Incarnation, 
and  of  Atonement,  in  the  omnipotence  of  God's  arbitrary 
will.  The  miracle  which  the  acute  scepticism  of  Duns 
and  Ockham  destroyed  must  be  accepted  on  the  authority 
of  the  Church,  or  on  the  fiat  of  a  Will  above  proof  or  reason. 
Duns  held,  therefore,  that  though  the  substance  of  the 
elements  is  absolutely  annihilated,  the   accidents  of  the 

1  Dziewicke's  Introduction  to  Wyclif's  De  Apostasia,  p.  xv. 

2  The  other  two  theories  fall  without  our  period  ;  they  are  the  Cartesian 
theory  of  the  conservation  of  ^surface,'  and  the  theory  of  purely  subjective 
accidents. 


238    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION  [oh. 

bread  and  wine  remain,  maintained  as  verities  by  the 
unconditional  will  of  God. 

At  this  point  we  come  across  the  alliance  betweeti 
Nominalism  and  the  Church.  In  defence  of  its  great 
central  dogma  of  Tran^bstantiation  the  Church  was  pre- 
pared to  abandon  reason  and  fall  back  upon  authority,  the 
arbitrary  fiat  of  God  or  of  His  vicar.  Now  the  Nominalists 
who  held  that  the  universal  was  a  mere  flatus  vocis  found 
it  easy  to  believe  in  the  annihilation  of  the  substance  of 
the  elements,  a  dogma  that  for  the  Realist  was  full  of 
difficulties  ;  in  fact,  for  the  Realist,  inasmuch  as  material 
essence  is  absolutely  identical  in  all  things,  the  destruction 
of  the  smallest  substance  implies  the  destruction  of  all  the 
substance.  So  a  strong  party  in  the  Church  abandoned 
its  ancient  antagonism  and  embraced  Nominalism.  The 
consequences  were  remarkable.  Hence  arose,  in  fact,  the 
strong  opposition  which  Wyclif,  the  Realist,  encountered 
at  Oxford  from  Nominalists  and  Scotists,  chiefly  of  the 
'  Southern  nation,'  who  had  set  aside  the  cautious  Thomist 
doctrine  and  substituted  their  arbitrary  annihilations  and 
recreations.  For  Wyclif  was  a  Realist  who  held  that  even 
space  and  time  had  objective  reality,  to  whom,  also,  the 
Scotist  idea  of  the  annihilation  of  anything  real  was 
absolutely  inconceivable,  *  the  abomination  of  desola- 
tion,' a  departure  from  early  tradition  and  especially 
from  that  of  St.  Augustine  '  not  known  before  Lanfranc,' 
by  means  of  which  '  Antichrist  subverts  grammar,  logic^ 
and  natural  science.'  But  Wyclif's  moral  nature  was  too 
earnest  to  be  content  with  these  subtleties,  and  he  soon 
passed  to  larger  issues  and  controversies,  into  which,  how- 
ever, we  cannot  now  follow  him.^ 

From  Oxford  the  struggle  surged  elsewhere,  with  conse- 
quences writ  large  in  history.  The  modem  man  who  looks 
upon  all  philosophy  as  the  harmless,  if  useless,  occupation 

For  Wyclif  I  may  be  allowed  to  refer  to  my  work,  The  Dawn  of  tl^ 
Reformation,  rol.  i.,  Wyclif. 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  239 

or  leisure  of  a  few  dreamers  out  of  touch  with  a  world  of 
facts,  can  form  httle  conception  of  the  fury  with  which  the 
rival  schools  attacked  each  other.  In  Prague  the  odium 
philosopMcum  descended  into  the  streets.  In  the  confused 
faction  fights  that  raged  there  before  the  great  migration 
of  five  hundred  Germans  in  1409  to  found  a  new  university 
at  Leipzig,  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  which  hatred  was 
uppermost,  that  of  Czech  against  Teuton,  of  heretic  against 
orthodox,  or  of  Realist  against  Nominalist.  The  Germans 
had  embraced  Nominalism  ;  of  itself  a  sufficient  reason  for 
the  Czechs  to  become  uncompromising  Realists,  and  to 
welcome  the  works  of  so  thorough-going  a  Realist  as  Wyclif . 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  John  Hus  was  condemned  almost  as 
much  for  being  a  Realist  in  philosophy,  as  his  master  Wyclif 
before  him,  as  for  being  a  heretic  in  theology  ;  his  most 
bitter  enemies  were  men  who  had  at  one  time  been  Realists, 
but  who  to  his  disgust  became  what  he  calls  '  Terminists,' 
i.e.  Nominalists.^  At  Constance  his  opponents  were  the 
two  leading  Nominalists  of  Paris,  both  of  them  reformers 
in  their  way,  Peter  d'Ailli  and  John  Gerson. 

One  result  of  the  development  of  Nominalism  must  not 
be  overlooked.  Nominalism,  as  we  have  seen,  tends  to 
deny  the  rationality  of  the  objects  of  faith,  and  so  to  lay  the 
stress  on  the  will  of  God.  For  both  reasons,  in  their  doctrine 
of  salvation  the  Scotists  laid  stress  upon  the  will  of  man : 
it  is  by  the  will  and  by  its  union  with  the  will  of  God  that 
man  attains  to  eternal  life.  To  the  influence  of  this  Scotist 
doctrine  of  the  primacy  of  the  undetermined  will,  with  its 
distrust  of  reason,  upon  the  Mysticism  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, we  have  already  alluded.  Insistence  upon  will  is 
incompatible  with  the  old  Areopagite  pantheism  which  had 
so  long  been  the  ban  of  Mysticism.  A  further  development 
was  reached  when  the  question  was  asked  how  the  will  can 

1  For  Hus  and  the  bearings  of  the  struggle  T  may  refer  to  my  Davm  of  the 
Reformation,  vol.  ii.,  Age  of  Hus  ;  or  to  the  Letters  of  Hus,  ed.  Workman  and 
Pope.     (London,  1904.) 


240   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION  [ch. 

be  so  influenced  as  to  lead  us  to  God.  Such  a  question  found 
its  answer  at  the  Reformation  in  the  revival  of  the  doctrine 
of  grace.  Strange  to  say,  the  return  to  Augustinian 
doctrine  in  the  Middle  Ages  generally  issued  in  the  subor- 
dination of  reason  to  the  will,  for  Augustine  had  so  pre- 
sented the  relation  of  the  two  "  that  no  inner  state,  and 
no  activity  of  thought,  existed  apart  from  the  will."  ^  The 
Scotist  conception  of  the  absolute  arbitrariness  of  the 
Divine  Will  thus  prepared  the  way  for  Calvin, 


In  many  respects,  both  philosophical  and  theological, 
Aquinas  had  departed  from  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine, 
in  this  following  the  Church  of  his  day  and  the  general  drift 
of  Scholasticism.  The  recognition  of  this  gives  us  the  key 
to  later  developments  other  than  the  scepticism  of  Duns. 
Even  in  St.  Thomas's  life  there  was  a  conservative  reac- 
tion to  the  undiluted  Augustinian  doctrine.  Bradwardine, 
Wyclif ,  Hus,  followed  by  the  Dutch  thinkers  Wesel,  Wessel, 
and  Pupper  of  Goch,  began  that  return  to  Augustine  and 
to  the  neglected  Pauline  side  of  his  teaching  which  the  Re- 
formers of  the  sixteenth  century  completed  in  their  different 
ways,  not  always,  be  it  remarked,  to  the  advantage  of  a 
spiritual  Christianity.  With  Bradwardine  (tl349)  and 
Wyclif  the  belief  in  predestination  is  absolute.  No  man, 
not  even  a  pope,  '  wots  whether  he  be  of  the  Church,  or 
whether  he  be  a  limb  of  the  fiend.'  Of  this  predestination 
the  remorseless  logic  of  Wyclif  was  not  slow  in  drawing 
the  conclusion.  The  Church,  as  the  mystical  body  of  the 
predestinated,  is  a  unity  that  knows  nothing  of  papal 
primacies  and  hierarchies,  or  of  the  '  sects '  of  monks, 
friars,  and  priests  ;  nor  can  the  salvation  of  the  elect 
be  conditioned  by  masses,  indulgences,  penance,  or  other 
devices  of  sacerdotalism. 

»  Harnack,  J^.  D.  t.  p.  128  n. 


II.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  241 

With  Wyclif  Scholasticism  became  played  out.  *'  The 
Aristotelian  form  refused  to  fit  a  matter  for  which  it  was 
never  intended ;  the  matter  of  Christian  theology  refused 
to  be  forced  into  an  alien  form."  ^  In  its  earlier  years  this 
great  movement  had  brought  a  measure  of  deliverance 
to  the  lauman  mind.  Her  energies  were  now  exhausted, 
her  vital  force  spent.  If  in  common  repute  Scholasticism 
stands  damned  for  ever,  the  cause  must  be  found  in  the 
worse  than  USelessness  of  her  latter  days.  Her  services 
have  been  forgotten  in  the  abiding  memory  of  her  servile 
follies  and  parrot  repetitions.  As  an  intellectual  move- 
ment her  work  finished  with  Ockham,  for  Wyclif  as  a 
Schoolman  does  little  more  than  gyrate  on  a  well-beaten 
path,  oftentimes  concealing  his  track  with  clouds  of  dust. 
Great  as  is  his  importance  as  a  politician  and  popular  contro- 
versialist, his  philosophical  works,  as  modem  research  has 
shown,  contain  little  that  can  claim  to  be  original,  with  the 
partial  exception  of  his  political  doctrine  of  '  dominion.' 
Theology,  too,  in  the  fourteenth  century  had  become  utterly 
sterile.  No  manuscript  of  the  fathers  dates  from  the 
century,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  brief  tracts.  What 
the  age  knew  of  the  past  it  was  content  to  obtain  from  well- 
known  Commonplace  books,  arranged  alphabetically. 

Scholasticism,  in  fact,  with  the  work  of  Ockham  became 
unreal.  We  see  this  unreality  in  the  favourite  idea  of  the 
later  Schoolmen  that  there  is  a  double  truth.  The  result  of 
such  teaching  is  seen  in  the  list,  condemned  at  Paris  in 
1277,  of  two  hundred  and  nineteen  propositions,  which 
Siger  of  Brabant  and  others  maintained  might  be  true  in 
philosophy  though  false  in  theology.  In  these  theses — 
some  of  which  were  revivals  of  Averroism — we  find  denials 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
besides  assertions  of  the  eternity  of  matter,  the  uselessness 
of  prayer,  and  the  existence  of  fables  in  the  Gospels.  There 
1  Prof.  Seth,  "Scholasticism,"  in  Enc.  Brit.  (9),  iii.  p.  418. 

Q 


242    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION  [ch. 

was,  in  fact,  nothing  which  the  later  Schoolmen  were  not 
prepared  to  fling  into  their  syllogistic  machine,  as  they  mis- 
took an  endless  output  of  wind  for  reality  and  truth.  They 
held  that  it  was  open  to  debate  whether  continence  was  a 
virtue,  or  voluntary  fornication  a  sin.  Wyelif  himself  was 
real,  especially  in  the  width  of  his  social  sympathies  ;  his 
bitterest  foes  could  not  label  him  otherwise.  Unfortun- 
ately in  his  philosophical  outlook  he  was  no  prophet.  He 
did  not  see  that  the  soil  that  he  ploughed  was  exhausted, 
and  that  neither  his  religious  zeal  nor  his  genius  could 
produce  from  it  any  further  harvest. 

Thus  the  labours  of  the  later  Schoolmen  are  mere  mental 
gymnastics  without  bearing  on  life  ;  researches  which  result 
in  no  discovery  ;  the  worship  of  logic  for  logic's  own  sake  ; 
elaboration  of  distinctions  without  difference ;  endless 
conflicts  in  which  the  foes  lose  sight  of  each  other  in  a  more 
than  Egyptian  darkness  and  in  labyrinths  without  issue. 
Whether  the  Schoolmen  debated,  as  is  popularly  supposed, 
how  many  angels  could  dance  on  the  point  of  a  needle,  we 
know  not.  But  other  questions  of  equal  absurdity  were 
common  subjects  of  dispute.  In  1614  Christopher  Binder 
published  at  Tiibingen  his  Scholastica  Theologia.  Its 
controversy  with  the  Jesuits  we  may  pass  by.  But  the 
collection  in  his  second  chapter  of  the  absurdities  which 
formed  the  diet  of  the  schools  is  still  of  value,  provided 
always  that  the  student  remember  that  such  absurdities 
were  not  the  whole  work  of  Scholasticism.  We  find 
among  other  matters  of  debate  such  questions  as  these  : 
Whether  the  Angel  of  the  Annunciation  appeared  as  a 
serpent,  as  a  deer,  or  in  human  form  ;  whether  the  body  of 
Mary  was  exposed  to  the  influence  of  the  stars ;  whether 
if  man  had  not  fallen  all  would  have  been  males  ;  whether 
a  dumb  priest  is  able  to  consecrate  ;  or  whether  a  baptism 
would  be  valid  *  if  you  inverted  the  syllables  and  read 
Trispa,  Liisfi,  and  Ctisan  Tus  Spiri,'  or  *  said  Buff,  Baff.' 

We  could  pardon  the  failure  of  Scholasticism  to  discover 


IX.]  THE  SCHOOLMEN  243 

a  primary  law  governing  the  whole  realm  of  mind  and 
matter,  for  in  the  nature  of  things  success  was  impossible. 
We  could  pardon  the  self-assurance  of  her  sons,  for  as  yet 
there  was  no  consciousness  of  the  infinite  range  of  science 
to  impress  humility  on  all  but  the  ignorant.  But  the 
flippancy  and  unreality  of  the  later  Schoolmen  are  sins  unto 
death,  which  brought  the  inevitable  penalty  in  the  over- 
throw of  Scholasticism  itself.  We  need  not  wonder  at  the 
enthusiasm  with  which,  when  the  opportunity  arose,  Europe 
turned  away  from  these  barren  puerilities  to  the  New 
Learning  with  its  revelation  of  the  forgotten  treasures  of 
Hellas.  With  the  incoming  of  a  new  intellectual  method 
and  outlook  there  came  also  of  necessity  a  complete 
revolution  in  theological  conceptions.  But  the  considera- 
tion of  these  and  of  other  later  developments  of  Christian 
Thought  Hes  outside  our  limits. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

[To  give  an  adequate  Bibliography  of  a  subject  that  covers  fifteen 
centuries  of  the  history  of  Philosophy,  Theology,  and  of  the  Church 
would  demand  a  volume  in  itself.  In  the  following  pages  a  few 
only  of  the  more  accessible  works  are  indicated.  In  all  cases  where 
good  English  authorities  exist  only  slight  reference  is  made  to  French 
or  German  writers.  But  in  many  matters  we  are  still  dependent  on 
the  guidance  of  foreign  scholars.] 

GENERAL  AUTHORITIES 

A.  Harnack,  Hist,  of  Dogma  (Eng.  Tr.  from  3rd  German  ed., 
7  vols.,  1905),  a  vast  storehouse  which  can  never  be  neglected. 
Harnack's  Outlines  of  the  Hist,  of  Dogma  (1  vol.,  1893)  may  be 
specially  commended  to  the  busy  general  reader. 

The  works  of  C.  R.  Hagenbach  (Eng.  Tr.,  1846-47, 1850) ;  J.  A.  W. 
Nkander  (Eng.  Tr.,  in  12  vols.) ;  G.  P.  Fisher,  Hist,  of 
Christian  Doctrine  (2nd  ed.,  1897) ;  W.  G.  T.  Shedd  (2  vols., 
1865) ;  F.  LooFS,  Leitfaden  z.  Studium  d.  Dogmengeschichte 
(Halle,  4th  ed.,  1906)  ;  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  Continuity  of  Christian 
Thought  (new  ed.,  1895) ;  J.  F.  Bethune-Baker,  Introd.  to 
Early  Hist,  of  Christian  Doctrine  (1903,  four  centuries  only), 
all  deserve  study. 

For  the  Middle  Ages  the  following  works  should  be  added  : — 

R.  L.  Poole,  Illustrations  of  the  Hist,  of  Medieval  Thought  (1884). 
J.  B.  Haur^au,  Hist,  de  la  Philosophic  Scolastique  (2  vols.,  Paris, 

1872-80). 
€5.  V.  Prantl,  Gesch.  d.  Logik  im  Ahendlande  (4  vols.,  Leipzig, 

1855-70). 
H.  Rashdall,  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  (3  vols., 

1895). 
R.  D.  Hampden,  Scholastic  Philosophy  (1837,  1848). 
A.  H.  RiTTER,  Christl.  Philos.  (2  vols.,  Gdttingen,  1858-59). 
W.  J.  TowNSEND,  Great  Schoolmen  (1881).    (A  popular  work.) 
V.  Cousin,  Philosoph.  Scolastique  f Paris,  1840). 
M.  DE  Wulf,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  Medievale  (2nd  ed.,  Paris,  1905).. 

245 


246    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

H.  F.  Reuter,  Gesch.  d.  rdig.  Aufkldrung  im  Mittelalter  (2  vols., 

Berlin,  1875-77). 
C.  Werner,  Die  ScholastiJc  d.  spdteren  Mittdalters  (4  vols.,  Vienna, 

1881-87). 

Reference  should  also  be  made  to  the  many  excellent  articles  in — 

Smith- Wage,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography  (4  vols.),  and 
J.   Hastings,  Encyc.  of  Religion  and  Ethics  [3  vols,  as  yet  (1911) 
published]. 

Special  features  are  also  treated  at  length  in  the  following  : — 

R.  L.  Ottley,  The  Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  (2  vols.,  1896). 

C.  E.  Luthardt,  Hist,  of  Christian  Ethics  (1888). 

W.  E.  H.  Leckt,  Hist,  of  European  Morals  from  Augustus  to 

Charlemagne  (1869,  many  eds.). 
J.  A.  DoRNER,  Person  of  Christ  (Eng.  Tr.  by  D.  W.  Simon,  in 

5  vols.,  1861). 
A.  Harnack,  Chronologic  der  Altchrist.  Litteratur  (2  vols.,  Leipzig, 

1897,  1904). 
F.  Ueberweg,   Hist,  of  Philosophy  (Eng.  Tr.  by  G.  S.  Morris, 

2  vols.,  1872). 

CHAPTER  I 

§  L  F.  J.  A.  Hort,  Clementina  Recognitions  (1901),  and  Jvdaistic 
Christianity  (1894). 
H.  Waitz,  Die  PseudoMementinen  (1904). 

§  n.  H.  KiHN,  Theodore  von  Mopsuestia  und  Junilius  Africanus  als 

Exegeten  (Freiburg,  1880). 
F.  W.  Farrar,  Hist,  of  Interpretation  (1886). 
L.  Diestel,  Gesch.  des  Alt.  Test,  in  der  Christl.  Kirche  (Jena, 

1869). 

§  III.  On  the  difficult  subject  of  Apocalyptic  and  Eschatological 
Literature  the  student  may  be  referred  to  the  works  of 
R.  H.  Charles,  Enoch  (1893),  Baruch  (1896),  Jubilees 
(1895). 

For  the  chaotic  wilderness  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  see  the 
editions  of  C.  Alexandre  (Paris,  1841-56  ;  2nd  ed.,  1869, 
with  excursuses  omitted) ;  or  J.  H.  Frcedlieb  (1852) ;  or, 
best  of  all,  the  new  edition  bv  F.  Geffcken  (Leipzig,  1902). 
See  also  E.  Schurer,  Jeivish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ 
(Eng.  Tr.,  Edin.  1890,  6  vols.),  vol.  iii.  (2),  271-92  ;  R.  A. 
Lipsius  and  M.  Bonnet,  Acta  Apostol.  Apocrypha  (Leipzig, 
1891,  3  vols.) ;  W.  Bousset,  Jiid.  Apokalyptik  (1903) ; 
W.  Wright,  Apocryphal  Acts  of  Apostles  (2  vols.,  1871). 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  247 

The  problem  stated  by  A.  Schweitzer,  Von  Reimarns  zu 
Wrede  (1906,  Eng.  Tr.,  'The  Quest  of  the  Historical 
Jesus,'  1910),  as  to  the  Eschatological  teaching  of  Christ, 
cannot  be  neglected. 

Reference  may  also  be  made  to  H.  N.  Oxenham,  Catholic 
Eschatology  and  Universalism  (1876) ;  R.  H.  Charles, 
A  Critical  Hist,  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life  in  Israel 
and  Christianity  (1879). 

For  the  '  prophets '  of  the  Church,  see  T.  M.  Lindsay,  Church 
and  Ministry,  p.  90  flF.  ;  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  Christian  In- 
stitutions (1898),  p.  54  S.  ;  E.  C.  Selwyn,  Christian 
Prophets  (1900). 

§  IV.  A.  F.  Gfrorer,  Philo  u.  d.  Alexandrinische  Theosophie 
(Stuttgart,  1831,  1835). 

A.  F.  Dahne,  Gesch.  Darstellung  d.  jUdisch-alexand.  Reli- 
gions-Philosophic  (Halle,  1834). 

E.  Schurer,  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ,  espec.  v.  3. 

J.  Drummond,  Philo  Judaeus  (2  vols.,  1888). 

T.  Mozlet,  The  Word  (1889). 

C.  Siegfried,  Philo  v.  Alexandria  (Jena,  1876). 

Also  article  s.v.  in  Jewish  Encyc,  vol.  x. 

CHAPTER  II 

§§  I.  and  II.  Good  general  works  are  the  following : — 

E.   Caird,   Evolution    of   Theology  in    Greek   Philosophers 

(2  vols.,  1904). 
E.  Hatch,  The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon 

the  Christian  Church  (1888). 
E.  Zeller,  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and  Sceptics  (tr.  O.  J.  Reichel, 

1880,  1892). 
J.  E.  Erdmann,  Hist,  of  Philosophy  (Eng.  Tr.,  S.  F.  AUeyne, 

1883,  1890). 
J.  F.  D.  Maurice,  Moral  and  Metaphysical  Philosophy  (1873). 
T.  R.  Glover,  The  Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman 

Empire  (3rd  ed.,  1909). 
S.  Dill,  Roman  Soc.  from  Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius  (1904). 

§  I.  T.  Whittaker,  Apollonius  of  Tyana  (1906). 
G.  R.  S.  Mead,  Apollonius  of  Tyana  (1901). 

§  III.  Of  the  older  works  on  Gnosticism  reference  may  be  made  to — 

H.  L.  Mansel,  Gnostic  Heresies  (1875,  ed.  Bishop  Lightfoot). 
R.  A.  L IPS! us,  Der  Gnosticismus  (Leipzig,   1860),  and  the 
series  of  articles  by  Lipsius  in  D.G.B. 


248    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

A.  Merx,  Bardesanes  v.  Edessa  (Halle,  1863). 
R  C.  Baur,  Die  Christl  Chiosis  (Tubingen,  1836),  and  Das 
Manichdische  Rdigionssystem  (1831). 

Of  recent  critical  works— J.  Kunzb,  de  hist.  Gnostic,  fontibus 

(1894). 
A.  Harnack,  Altchrist.  Lit  i.  171  ff.  ;  ii.  533  ff. 
G.  R.  S.  Mead,  Fragments  of  a  Faith  Forgotten  (1900). 
W.  BoussET,  Hauptprobleme  der  Ononis  (Gottingen,  1907). 

The  fragments  of  Gnostic  writings  have  been  edited  in — 

A.  Hilgbnpeld's  Ketzerges.  d.  Urchristentums  (Leipzig,  1884). 

For  the  Pistis- Sophia,  see  Texte  u.  Untersuch.  vii.  2,  and  viii. 
1,  2  ;  and  the  Eng.  Tr.  by  G.  R.  S.  Mead  (1896). 

§  IV.  The  most  useful  edition  of  the  Apologists  is  that  of  J.  C.  Otto, 
Corpus  Apologetarum  (2nd  ed.,  Jena,  1876). 

§  V.  F.  J.  A.  HoRT,  Six  Lectures  on  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers. 

B.  F.  Westcott,  8.  v.  in  D.C.B.,  and  in  his  Religious  Thought 
in  the  FT^se  (1891),  c.  5. 

C.  Bigg,  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria. 
R  DE  Fate,  Cldm.  d'Alexandrie  (Paris,  1898). 

J.  Patrick,  The  Apology  of  Origen  in  Reply  to  Cdsus  (1892). 

The  standard  edition  of  Clement  is  by  0.  Stahlin  (Leipzig, 
1905  f.) ;  of  Origen  by  C.  H.  Lommatzsch  (Berlin,  1831-48) ; 
Eng.  Tr.  by  R  Crombie  (1869-72). 

§  VI.  The  works  of  Plotinus  have  been  edited — Oxford,  1855  ; 
Leipzig,  1856.  There  is  an  Eng.  Tr.  of  select  works  by 
T.  Taylor  (1794),  edited,  with  Notes,  by  G.  R.  S.  Mead 
(1895). 


CHAPTER  III 

§  III.  H.  M.  Gwatkin,  Studies  of  Arianism  (1882,  1900) ;  Avian 

Controversy  (1896). 
J.  H.  Newman,  Avians  of  Fourth  Century  (1871),  chiefly  of 

controversial  interest. 
W.  Bright,  The  Age  of  the  Fathevs  (2  vols.,  1903). 
A.  Robertson,  Selected  Wovks  of  Athanasius  tvanslated  into 

English  (Oxford,  1892). 
K  C.  S.  Gibson,  Three  Creeds  (1908). 
C.  A.  SwAiNSON,  Nicene  and  Apostles^  Cveed  (1875). 
F.  J.  A.  Hort,  Two  Dissevtaticms  (1876). 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  249 

§  rV.  G.  W.  Ommannet,  a  Critical  Dissertation  on  the  Athanasian 

Creed  (1697). 
A.  E.  Born,  The  Athanasian  Creed  (1896);  Introduction  to 

the  Creeds  (1890). 
J.  A.  Robinson,  The  Athanasian  Creed  (1905). 
J.  Draseke,  Apollinarios  von  Laodicea  (Leipzig,  1892),  with 

appendix  of  remains. 
G.  VoisiN,  VApollinarisTne  (Louvain,  1901). 
J.  F.  Bethune-Baker,  Nestorius  and  his  Teachings  (1908). 
A.  Thierry,  Nestorius  and  Eutyches  (Paris,  1878). 
F.liOOFS,  Nestoriana,  die  Fragmente  des  Nestorius  (Halle,  1905). 
Nestorius,   Le    Livre  d'HSraclide  de  Damas^   traduit    en 

Francais  par  F.  Nau,  etc.  (Paris,  1910). 

CHAPTER  IV 

§  II.  C.  P.  Caspari,  Qudlen  z.  Gesch.  des  TaufsymboU  (Christiania, 
1866-9,  1879). 

F.  Kattenbusch,  DasApostolische  Symbol  (2  vols.,  1894, 1900). 
A.  C.  M<^GiFFERT,  The  Apostles'  Creed  (1902). 

H.  B.  Swete,  The  Apostles'  Creed  (1894,  1899). 
T.  Zahn,  Das  Apostolische  Symbolum  (1893). 

§  III.  G.  N.  BoNWETSCH,  Gesch.  d.  Montanismus  (Erlangen,  1881 ; 
with  full  sources). 

A.  RiTSCHL,  Die  Entstehung  d.  altkathol.  Kirche  (2nd  ed., 
Bonn,  1857). 

^  IV.  For  Tertullian,  the  most  useful  edition  is  that  by  F.  Oehler 
(3  vols.,  Leipzig,  1854) ;  best  text  by  Reifferscheid, 
WissowA,  and  Krotmann  in  C.S.E.L.  (Vienna,  1890, 1906). 

J.  A.  Neander,  Antignosticus  or  Spirit  of  Tertullian  (tr. 
by  Ryland,  London,  1851). 

For  Cyprian,  best  text  by  G.  Hartel,  C.S.E.L.  (3  vols., 
Vienna,  1868-71). 

B.  W.  Benson,  Life  and  Times  of  Cyprian  (1898). 

CHAPTER  V 

From  the  vast  literature  on  St.  Augustine  we  select : — 

W.  Cunningham,  St.  Austin  and  his  Place  in  the  Hist,  of 
Christian  Thought  (1886). 

C.  BiNDEMANN,  Der  heil.  Augustinus  (Greifswald,  1844-61, 
3  vols.). 

P.  Schaff,  Life  and  Labours  of  St.  Augustine  (1851). 
H.  A.  Naville,  St.  Augustiuy  itude  sur  le  ddveloppement  de  sa 
pensie  (Geneva,  1872). 

G.  VON  Hertlino,  Aiigustin  (Mainz,  1902). 


250    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

H.  F.  Reuter,  Augustinische  Studien  (Gotha,  1887). 

F.  RiBBECK,  Donatus  and  Augustinus  (Elberfeld,  1858). 

A.  Hatzfeld,  St.  Augustin  (6th  ed.,  Paris,  1902). 

S.  Angus,  The  Sources  of  the  First  Ten  Books  of  Augustinus 

de  Civitate  Dei  (Princeton,  1906). 
J.  F.  NouRRissoN,  Philos.  de  S.  August  (2  vols.,  Paris,  1866). 

A.  DoRNER,  Augustinus  (Berlin,  1873). 

For  St.  Augustine's  writings  the  best  edition  is  the  new  critical 
Vienna  Corpus  {G.S.E.L.\  of  which  about  14  vols,  have  been 

Eublished.      There  is  an  extensive  Eng.  Tr.  in  the  Select 
ibrary  of  the  Nicene  Fathers.     Of  older  editions,  the  best 
is  the  Benedictine  (Paris,  1679-1700),  reprinted  in  Migne, 
P.L.  vols.  xxxiL-xlvii.,  or  by  Gaume,  11  vols.  (Paris,  1838). 
The  Anti-Pelagian  treatises  have  been  edited  separately  by 
Dr.  Bright  (Oxford,  1880). 

CHAPTER  VI 

§  I.  F.  H.  DuDDEN,  Gregory  the  Oreat:  His  Place  in  Hist  and 
Thought  (2  vols.,  1905). 
J.  Barmby,  Gregory  the  Great  (1892). 

§  IL  H.  C.  Lea,  Hist,  of  Auricular  Confession  and  Indulgences 
(3  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1896). 

(See  also  "Canon  Law"  in  Encyc.  Brit.^  11th  ed.) 

§  V.  Alice  Gardner,  Studies  in  John  the  Scot  (1900). 

W.  Kaulich,  EntwicJdung  der  scholastischen  Philosophic  von 
J.  Scotus  Erigena  bis  Abdlard  (Prag,  1863). 

B.  F.  Westcott  in  Essays  in  Hist,  of  Christian  Thought  in 
the  West  (1891). 

J.  Havet,  Les  Origines  de  S.  Denis  (Paris,  1896). 

H.  O.  Taylor,  Classical  Heritage  of  the  Middle  Ages  (1903), 

for  his  later  influence. 
F.  Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformers  (3rd  ed.,  1896,  pp.  60-78). 
A.  L.  Frothinoham,  Stephen  bar  Sudaili  (Leyden,  1886). 

There  is  a  complete  edition  of  Erigena's  works  in  Migne,  P.L. 
cxxii.;  of  Dionysius  in  P.G.  iii.-iv.  There  is  an  English 
version  by  J.  Parker  (London,  1894  and  1897). 

CHAPTER  VII 

§  L  A.    F.    Vischbr,    Berengar.    Turon.    de    iocra    coena    adv. 
Lanfranc.  (Berlin,  1834),  and  Lanfranc's  works  in  Migne, 
P.L.  vol.  el. 
D.  Stone,  Hist,  of  Dodriru  of  Holy  Eucharist  (1909). 

C.  Gore,  Dissertations  on  Subjects  connected  with  the  Incamor- 
tiony  pp.  248-64  (1896). 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  261 

§  TIL  J.  M.  RiGG,  Anselm  of  Canterbury  (1896). 

G.  C.  Foley,  Anselm' s  Theory  of  the  Atonement  (1909). 
Ch.  de  RiMusAT,  St.  Anselme  (2nd  ed.,  Paris,  1868). 
Anselni's  works  are  in  Migne,  P.L.  clviii.  and  clix. 

§  IV.  E.  Vacandard,  Vie  de  S,  Bernard  (2  rols.,  Paris,  1895). 
J.  C.  MoRisoN,  St.  Bernard  (1868  ;  many  later  editions). 
Bernard's  works  are  in  Migne,  P.L.  clxxxii.-v. 

§  V.  S.  M.  Deutsch,  Peter  Ahalard  (Leipzig,  1883). 
Ch.  de  R^musat,  Ahelard  (2  vols.,  Paris,  1845). 

E.  Vacandard,  Ahelard,  sa  lutte  Xivec  S.  Bernard  (Paris, 
1881). 

Abailard'a  works  are  in  Migne,  P.L.  clxxviii.  (1855),  but 
without  the  Tractatus  de  Unitate  et  Trinitate,  first  ed.  by 
R.  Stolzle  (Freiburg,  1891). 

CHAPTER  VIII 

For  the  Mystics  in  general  see  : — 

W.  R.  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  (1899). 

R.  M.  Jones,  Mystical  Religion  (1909). 

A.  JuNDT,  Hist,  du  pantheisme populaire  au  moyen  dge  (Paris, 

1875). 
W.   Preger,  Gesch.  d.  deutschen  Mystik  (3  vols.,  Leipzig, 

1 874-93).    F.  Pfeiffer,  Deutsche  Mystiker  d.  xiv.  Jahrhund. 

(New  edition,  2  vols.,  Gottingen,  1906-7). 
H.  JoLY,  Psychology  of  Saints  (Eng.  Tr.,  1898). 
R.  A.  Vaughan,  Hours  with  the  Mystics  (2  vols.,  1856). 

F.  R.  V.  HuGEL,  Mystical  Element  of  Religion  (2  vols.,  1909). 
W.  R.  Inge,  Life,  Idght,  and  Love  (1904). 

E.  Gebhardt,  L'ltalie  Mystique  (3rd  ed.,  1899). 

§  III.  A.  Lasson,  Meister  Eckhart  der  Mystiker  (Berlin,  1868). 

H.  Delacroix,  Le  Mysticisme  speculatif  en  Allemagne  au 

xiif  sikle  (Paris,  1900). 
K.  Pearson  in  Mind  (1886). 

JosiAH  RoYCE,  Studies  of  Good  and  Evil  (New  York,  1898). 
A.  JuNDT,  Essai  sur  le  mysticisme   speculatif  de  Eckhart 

(Strassburg,  1871). 

For  Eckhart's  German  writings,  see  F.  Pfeiffer,  Deutscher 
Mystiker,  vol.  2  (Leipzig,  1857),  and  for  his  Latin,  H.  Denifle 
in  Archiv.  f.  Litt.  u.  Kirchengesch.  (1886  and  1889). 

§  IV.  H.  Denifle,  Der  Gottesfreund  im  Oherland  u.  Nikolaus  v. 
Basel  (Munich,  1870). 
Charles  Schmidt,  Nicolaus  v.  Basel  (Strassburg,  1875). 
K.  RiEDER,  Der  Gottesfreund  vom  Oherland  (Innsbruck,  1905). 


252    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

A.  JuNDT,  Rulman  Merswin  et  Vami  de  Dieu  de  VOberland 

(Paris,  1890). 
H.  Suso,  Life  of  the  Blessed  Henry  Suso  (tr.  by  T.  F.  Knox, 

1865). 
S.  WiNKWORTH,  John  Tauler  (1857). 
A.  W.  HuTTON,  The  Inner  Way^  being  Tauler's  Sermons  for 

Festivals  (n.d.). 
J.  P.  Arthur,  The  Founders  of  the  New  Devotion  (London, 

1905) ;  Chronicle  of  Mount  St.  Agnes  (London,  1906). 
S.  Kettlewell,  'Phomas  d,  Kempis  and  the  Brothers  of  the 

Common  Life  (2  vols.,  1882). 
S.  H.  Gem,  Hidden  Saints  (1907). 
F.  Cruise,  Thomas  a  Kempis  (1887). 
M.  Maeterlinck,  Ruysbroeck  and  the  Mystics  (Eng.  Tr., 

1894). 

CHAPTER  IX 

§  I.  S.  RiEZLER,  Die  literarischen  Widersacher  d&r  Pdpste  xur  Zeit 
Ludwig  des  Baiers  (Leipzig,  1874). 

The  works  of  Marsiglio  and  Ockham  are  in  Goldast,  vol.  2 
(Ed.  Hanover,  1611  ;  but  vol.  3  in  ed.  1621). 

)j  I  [.  For  Aristotle's  conquest  of  the  Schools  the  best  source  is — 
H.  Deniflk,  Chartularium  Univ.  Paris.^  espec.  vols.  2  and  3. 
For  Averroism,  etc. — 
P.  F.  Mandonnet,  Siger  de  Brabant  et  Vaverroisme  latin 

(Fribourg,  1899). 
J.  MiJLLER,  Philos.  and  Theol.  of  Averroes  (Munich,  1859). 
K  Ren  AN,  Averroh  et  VAverroisme  (3rd  ed.,  Paris,  1869). 
T.  J.  DE  Boer,  The  Hist,  of  Philos.  in  Islam  (1903). 
Carra  dk  Vaux,  Avicenne  (Paris,  1900);  "Ambian  Philo- 
sophy" in  Encyc.  Brit.,  11th  ed. 

§  III.  E.  Zellir,  Aristotle  and  the  Earlier  Peripatetics  (Eng.  Tr., 

2  vols.,  1897). 
C.  JouRDAiN,  Philos.  de  Thomas  d^Aquin  (2  vols.,  Paris,  1858). 
J.  Kleutoen,  Die  Philos.  der  Vorzeit  vertheidigt  (1878),  and 

Die  Theol.  der  Vorzeit  vertheidigt  (6  vols.,  Miinster,  1867) ; 

La  Philos.  scolastique  exposde  et  ddfendiu  (tr.  C.  SiXRP, 

4  vols.,  Paris,  1868-70). 
C.  Werner,  Thomus  v.  Aquino  (3  vols.,  1858,  1889). 
M.  Liberators,  On  Univertals  (tr.  1889). 


INDEX 


Abailard,  138,  155,  164,  179,  c.  vii. 

§5. 
Abstraction,  danger  of,  63. 
Acceptilatio,  178. 
Acosmism,  195. 
Adoptionism,  75.  76,  86,  145. 
Agobard,  142. 
Albert  the  Great,  200,  201. 
Alexander  of  Hales,  137,  177. 
Alexandria,  schools  of,  46,  96. 
Allegory,  7  f.,  181. 
Alogi,  101. 

Amalric  of  Bena,  153,  196. 
Ambrose,  98,  109,  115,  137. 
Angelology,  16  f. 
Anselm  of  Aosta,  46,  53,  103,  144, 

169,  c.  vii.  §3,  186 f.,  209. 
Antioch,  school  of,  10,  76,  79,  85,  227. 
Aphrodisias,  Alexander  of,  226,  230. 
Apocalyptic  literature,  c.  i.  §  3,  216. 
ApoUinaris,  84  f. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana,  25. 

Apologists,  c.  ii.  §  4, 

Apostles'  Creed,  73,  96. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  10,  44,  53, 138, 166, 

177,  178,  204,  224,  230  f.,  236. 
Atonement,  doctrine  of,  31,  43,  51, 

52,  53,  94,  103,  137,  138,  174  f., 

184,  204,  209. 
Athanasian  Creed,  71,  85,  143. 
Athanasius,  53,  55,  72,  79,  81. 
Arianism,    54,    68,    76,   c.    iii.    §  3, 

129. 
Aristotelian  philosophy,  44,  55,  132, 

170,  185,  187,  190,  198,  200,  215, 
c.  ix.  §§  2,  3. 


Augustine,  60,  91,  c.  r.,  136, 149, 169, 

186,  194,  198,  221,  230,  233,  240. 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  13,  44. 
Averroes,  201,  223  f. 
Avicenna,  223f. 

Bacon,  Roobr,  213,  220  f. 
Barnabas,  Epistle  of,  5,  12. 
Basilides,  33,  193. 
Berengar  of  Tours,  165,  236. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  10,  98,  c.  vii. 

§4,  185  f.,  199. 
Boethius,  133,  134,  179. 
Bonaventura,  200. 
Bradwardine,  240. 
Brethren  of  Common  Life,  206,  209. 
of  Free  Spirit,  197. 

Caecilius,  75. 

Callistus,  98. 

Calvin,  123,  165. 

Canon  law,  135,  163  f. 

Cassian  of  Marseilles,  126. 

Cathari,  38. 

Celsus,  42. 

Cerinthus,  3. 

Claudius  of  Turin,  141. 

Clement,  Epistle  of,  97. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  44  f. 

Clementine  Recognitions,  3. 

Chalcedon,  council  of,  87. 

Charles  the  Great,  130,  140  f.,  146, 

163,  164. 
Christ,  Person  of,  c.  iii. 
Church,  Augustine's  doctrine  of,  117. 
Clugny,  162. 

268 


254   CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 


Colet,  John,  158,  233. 
Columban,  136. 
ConceptualiBin,  185,  236. 
Creationism,  125. 
Crusades,  influence  of,  180. 
Cyprian,  17,  98,  106  f..  118. 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,  86,  87. 
of  Jerusalem,  80. 

Decretals,  the  false,  164,  219. 

Demonology,  16. 

Descartes,  114,  174. 

Desiderius  of  Vienne,  134. 

Deutz,  Ruperi;  of,  205. 

Dinant,  David  of,  224. 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  69,  60,  89, 

135.  c.  vi.  §  5.  197,  230. 

of  Alexandria,  78,  80. 

Donati'sts,  117. 

Duns  Scotus,  174,  178,  205,  232  f., 

235.  237. 

Eastern  Church,  separation  of,  144. 

Ebionites,  36,  67. 

Eckhart,  59,  191,  195,  c.  viii.  §  3. 

'  Ecstasy,'  199,  200,  207. 

Elipandus,  145  f. 

Enoch,  Book  of,  17. 

Erigena,  59,  148,  c.  vi.  §  6,  166,  196. 

Eternal  Gospel,  Introduction  to,  216. 

Eucharist,  doctrine  of,  51, 146  f.,  168, 

165  f,  c.  ix.  §4. 
Eugenius  in.,  179. 
Eutyches.  86. 

Fadstus  of  Riez,  126, 174. 
Felix  of  Urgel,  145  f. 
Filioque,  addition  of,  142  f. 
Francis  of  Assisi.     See  Friars. 
Free  WUl,  124. 
Friars,  influence  of,  218  f. 
Friends  of  God,  207. 

Oaunilio,  178. 

Gelasius,  65. 

GtrbertofAurillac.   -Sc« Sylrestern. 


Gerson,  199,  236,  239. 

GUbert  de  la  Porr^e,  179. 

Gnostics,  19,  c.  ii.  §  3,  42,  43,  46,  72, 

176. 
Gottschalk,  149,  150. 
Gratian,  164. 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  85. 

of  Nyssa,  52,  85,  87,  92. 

the  Great,  98,  129  f.,  134,  138, 

139. 

VII.     See  Hildebrand. 

IX.,  222. 

Groote,  Gerard,  209. 
'Ground,'191,  203,  204. 
Guitmund  of  Aversa,  166. 

Hellenism,  c.  ii.  §§  1,  2. 

Henotheism,  29. 

Hernias,  Shepherd  of,  66,  75,  146. 

*  Hierotheus,'  155. 

Hildebrand,  162,  172. 

Hippolytus,  78. 

Hus,  239. 

Iconoclastic  controversy,  89. 
Incarnation,  doctrine  of,  54,  77,  84, 

94,  177,  178,  204. 
Intolerance,  growth  of,  109. 
Irenaeus,  53,  97,  102  f. 
Imerius,  164. 

James,  Prof.,  on  Mysticism,  189. 
James,  Epistle  of,  69. 
James  of  Venice,  187. 
Jerome.  218. 

Joachim  di  Fiori,  60,  197,  216. 
John  of  Damascus,  88. 
Julian  of  Eclanum,  122,  123. 
Juliana  of  Norwich,  194. 
Junilius  African  us,  10. 
Justin  Martyr,  40. 
Justinian,  65. 

Ebmpis,  Thomas  1,  206,  208,  209  f. 

Lanfbano,  166,  28& 


INDEX 


255 


Latin,  terms,  95. 

Law,  influence  of,  upon  theology,  93, 

135,  163,  165. 
Leo  I.,  87,  111,126. 
Logos,  doctrine  of,  c.  i.  §  4,  43,  53, 

73,  83,  106. 
Lucian  of  Antioch,  79. 
Luther,  55,  112,  165,  177,  208,  211, 

233. 

Maimonides,  224,  230. 

Manichaeism,  37,  115, 120. 

Marcion,  5f.,  35,  96. 

Marsiglio,  218  f. 

Martin  of  Tours,  119. 

Medieval  thought,  characteristics  of, 

c.  vi.  §  1. 
Merswin,  Rulnian,  206,  207. 
Michael  of  Cesena,  217. 
Mithraism,  24. 
Monarchianism,  74  f. 
Monasticism,  60,  119. 
MoDophysitism,  86  f.,  225. 
Monothelitism,  88. 
Montanism,  97,  99  f. 
Mysticism,  c.  vi.  §  5,  180-1,  c.  viii. 

Nazarenbs,  3. 

Neoplatonism,  c.   ii.  §  6,  116,  156, 

195,  203. 
Nestorians,  85,  86,  122,  225. 
Nicene  Creed,  80. 
Nine  Rocks,  Book  of,  207,  208. 
Nominalism,  170  f.,  185,  244,  c.  ix. 

§41. 
Novatian,  106. 
Numenius,  29,  41,  66. 

OcKHAM,   William   op,   215,   217, 

235  f.,  242. 
Orange,  council  of,  126. 
Origen,  44f.,78,  80, 126. 
Ortlieb,  197. 

Panentheism,  196. 
Pantaenus,  46,  47. 


Pantheism,  194,  195,  239. 

Paris,  University  of,  187. 

Parousian  beliefs,  12  f. 

Patriarchs,  Testament  of,  3. 

Paul,  St.,  66,  118,  176. 

Paul  of  Samosata,  37,  75,  78. 

Paulicians,  37. 

Pelagianism,  121  f. 

Penance,  136  f. 

Penitentials,  lb6,  137. 

Peter  Lombard,  182,  184,  223. 

Peter  the  Venerable,  182. 

Philo,  7.  18,  57. 

Photius,  143. 

Platonic  Trinity,  29. 

Platonism,   43,  55,    170,    174,    197, 

227  f. 
Plotinus,  56,  57  f.,  191. 
Porphyry,  74,  170. 
*  Poverty,' 215  f. 
Pre-existence,  doctrine  of,  65. 
Proclus,  57,  59,  193. 
Purgatory,  50. 

'  Quantity,'  236  f. 

Rabanus  Maurus,  148. 

Radbert,  Paschasius,  147,  165,  166. 

Ratram,  148. 

Realism,  170  f.,  185,  244,  c.  ix.  §4. 

RecapUulatio,  104. 

Roman  Empire,  Christianity  and,  15, 

c.  iv.  §  1. 
Roscelin,  185,  235. 
Russian  Church,  89. 
Ruysbroeck,  John  of,  194,  206. 

Sabellianism,  68,  77. 
Sardica,  council  of,  83. 
Scholasticism,   meaning  of,   167  f.. 

c.  ix.  §  2. 
Scots,  work  of  the,  139. 
Scotus,  Duns.     See  Duns. 

John.     See  Erigena. 

Siger  of  Brabant,  241. 
Simon  of  Tournai,  224. 


256    CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  TO  THE  REFORMATION 


•Spark.' 191,  203. 

Spinoza,  195. 

Spirit,  Holy,  43. 

Spiritual  Franciscans,  215,  216. 

Stephen  bar  Sudaili,  165. 

Stoicism,  28,  119,  122. 

Superstition,  16. 

Suso,  Henry,  207,  208. 

Sylvesterii.,  162. 

Syncretism,  8,  24. 

Tatian,  41. 

Tauler,  191,  206.  208. 

Tertullian,  74,  77,  83,  97, 100, 102  f., 

137,  168. 
Testament  of  Twelve  Patriarchs^  3. 
Theodore  ot  Mopsuestia,  10,  85. 

of  Tarsus,  136,  140,  143. 

Theodotus,  76. 

Theologia  Oermanicat  192,  193,  206, 

208,  209. 


eeorSKOi,  86. 

Toledo,  councils  of,  129,  142. 
Traducianism,  105,  126. 
Transubstantiation.     See  Eucharist. 
Trinity,  doctrine  of,  54,  62.  105. 
Trivium  and  Quadrivium,  133, 134. 
Turibius  of  Astorga,  142. 

Vkrgil,  Gregory  and,  134. 
Victor,  Pope,  98. 

Hugh  of  St. ,  200. 

Richard  of  St.,  195,  200. 

Victorinus  Afer,  59,  198. 
Vincent  of  Lerins,  103. 

Wksel,  John  of,  211,  240. 

Wesley,  194. 

Wyclif,  206,  217,  218,  288  f. 

ZiMisc£S,  John,  37. 


Studies  in  Theology 

A  New  Series  of  Hand-books,  being  aid«  to  interpretation 

in   Biblical   Criticism   for   the   use    of    Ministers, 

Theological  Students  and  general  readers. 


12mo,  cloth.     75  ants  net  per  volume. 

THE  aim  of  the  series  is  described  by  the  general  title. 
It  is  an  attempt  to  bring  all  the  resources  of  modern 
learning  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
to  place  within  the  reach  of  all  who  are  interested 
the  broad  conclusions  arrived  at  by  men  of  distinction  in  the 
world  of  Christian  scholarship  on  the  great  problems  of  Faith 
and  Destiny.  The  volumes  are  critical  and  constructive,  and 
their  value  can  scarcely  be  overstated.  Each  volume  will 
contain  bibliographies  for  the  guidance  of  those  who  wish  to 
pursue  more  extended  studies. 

The  writers  selected  for  the  various  volumes  are  represen- 
tative scholars  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  Each  of 
them  has  been  assigned  a  subject  with  which  he  is  particularly 
qualified  to  deal,  as  will  be  at  once  apparent  even  in  this 
preliminary  announcement  giving  a  list  of  some  of  the  vol- 
umes in  preparation. 

ARRANGEMENT  OF  VOLUMES 

A  CRITICAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

By  Arthur  Samuel  Peake,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Biblical  Exegesis 
and  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology,  Victoria  University,  Man- 
chester. Sometime  Fellow  of  Merton  College,  Oxford.  Author  of 
"A  Guide  to  Biblical  Study,"  "  The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  the 
Old  Testament,"  etc.  [Ready. 

FAITH  AND  ITS  PSYCHOLOGY.  By  the  Rev.  William  R.  Inge, 
D.D.,  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity,  Cambridge,  and 
Bampton  Lecturer,  Oxford,  1899.  Author  of  "  Studies  of  the 
English  Mystics,"  "Truth  and  Falsehood  in  Religion,"  "Personal 
Idealism  and  Mysticism,"  etc.  [Ready. 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION.  By  the  Rev.  Hastings  Rash- 
DALL,  D.Litt.  (Oxon.),  D.C.L.  (Dunelm),  F.B.A.  Fellow  and 
Tutor  of  New  College,  Oxford.  Author  of  "  The  Theory  of  Good 
and  Evil,"  etc.,  etc.  [Ready. 


REVELATION  AND  INSPIRATION.  By  the  Rev.  Jamm  Om, 
D.D.,  Professor  of  Apologetics  in  the  Theological  College  of  th« 
United  Free  Church,  Glasgow.  Author  of  "  The  Christian  View 
of  God  and  the  World,"  "  The  Ritschlian  Theology  and  Evangelic*! 
Faith,"  •'  The  Problem  of  the  Old  Testament,"  etc.  [Ready. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  QUESTlONa     By  the  Rev.  Wa- 

LIAM  CuNNmoHAM,  D.D.,  F.B.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. Hon.  Fellow  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge. 
Archdeacon  of  Ely.  Formerly  Lecturer  on  Economic  History  to 
Harvard  University.  Author  of  "  Growth  of  English  History  and 
Commerce,"  etc.  [Ready. 

AN  ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  THEOLOGY.  By  the  Rev.  A.  M.  Fam- 
BAiXN,  D.D.,  D.Litt.,  LL.D.,  Principal  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 
Author  of  "  Studies  in  the  Life  of  Christ,"  "  Religion  in  History  and 
in  Modern  Life,"  "  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,"  etc. 

A  CRITICAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

By  the  Rev.  George  Buchanan  Gray,  D.D.,  D.Litt.,  Professor 
of  Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  Exegesis,  Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 
Author  of  "  The  Divine  Discipline  of  Israel,"  "  Studies  in  Hebrew 
Proper  Names,"  etc 

CHRISTIAN    THOUGHT    TO    THE     REFORMATION.     By 

Herbert  B.  Workman,  D.Litt.,  Principal  of  the  Westminster  Train- 
ing College.  Author  of  "The  Church  of  the  West  in  the  Middle 
Ages,"  "  The  Dawn  of  the  Reformation,"  etc.  [Ready. 

PROTESTANT    THOUGHT    BEFORE     KANT.      By    A.    C. 

McGiffert,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Church  History  in  the 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York.  Author  of  "The  His- 
tory of  Christianity  in  the  Apostolic  Age,"  and  "The  Apostles' 
Creed."  [Ready. 

HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  SINCE  KANT.    By  the 

Rev.  Edward  Caldwell  Moore,  D.D.,  Parkman  Professor  of 
Theology  in  Harvard  University.  Author  of  "The  New  Testa- 
ment in  the  Christian  Church,"  etc. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  HOPE:  A  STUDY  IN  THE  DOCTRINE 
OP  THE  LAST  THINGS.  By  William  Adams  Broww,  Ph.D., 
D.D.,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  New  York.  Author  of  "  The  Essence  of  Christianity," 
and  "  Christian  Theology  in  Outline." 

Other  Tolumet  are  In  preparation  and  will  be  announced  later. 


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